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Of Zack Fair, Genesis Rhapsodos and the strange narrative POV of FFVII-Crisis Core (Part IIIb)

Part I: https://buffaloborgine.tumblr.com/post/650462647672766464/of-zack-fair-genesis-rhapsodos-and-the-strange 

Part IIIa: https://buffaloborgine.tumblr.com/post/655899595763859456/of-zack-fair-genesis-rhapsodos-and-the-strange 

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Warning: Sincerely, this part takes on an even more controversial route than last part. Please read the previous parts first before reading further on this part. (I did have the link to part I in case you are new reader)

Also, please keep an open mind when you read this. I appreciate any kind of discussion about theories, but please, try to keep your bias out when we discuss on an objective subject. Thank you.

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The Mails (b) 

So we have the fundamental basic on how reliable the mails from the fanclubs could be. One person’s fanclub is mostly right when they wrote about their idol, but they may not be right about the others in the trio. 

Last time, we took a look in the Keepers of Honor’s mail, this time, we will take a look in the Silver Elite’s mail. 

Like, I think you would have already guessed out which mail it is, it’s not that hard.  

“The memory of silver winds

Sephiroth is known to value his private life, but there was a time when he had two best friends. We’d like to share a story of this threesome guaranteed to raise a smile.

The SOLDIER trio would use the training room exclusively as their playground, but in order to retain their 1st Class dignity, they would sneak in only after the 2nd Class members had gone home. Then they would proceed to have one of the three stand with a dumbapple on his head, while the other two would throw their swords at the apple to pierce it!

Sephiroth always won, his Masamune always striking every dumbapple dead center.” 

So, what’s the problem with this mail? It’s just a fun snippet about what the trio do in their free time, right? 

The first thing we notice about this mail is it’s title, “The memory of silver winds”. It then raises the very first problem about this. 

In the last part, I introduce the “Rashoumon Effect” to you guys, and it’s really important to bring it back here again. 

When you realize that you are facing a problem affected by Rashoumon effect, you should be aware of two things: one is that you don’t have enough proofs to confirm what the heck happened and two is the witnesses may not provide accurate testimony, either because of their memory got tampered by emotion, situation or even their own decision. 

Therefore, the title of this mail has a red flag that it’s just a “memory”, thus, it can totally be not accurate, due to, a lot of reasons. But of course, it can still be accurate, right? Then let’s move on to the next problems this mail brings about.  

“The SOLDIER trio would use the training room exclusively as their playground, but in order to retain their 1st Class dignity, they would sneak in only after the 2nd Class members had gone home.” 

In one of the very first mail Zack got from Kunsel, we got some information. 

Kunsel points out that “Genesis never found group activities appealing”, so it contradicts with the info “The SOLDIER trio would use the training room exclusively as their playground”. However, taken in the famous “training simulation room” cutscene, we find details contradict even more. 

Yes, we actually have a cutscene, which is trustable, of the trio in the training room and the mail from Silver Elite did say that too, we can assume that Kunsel’s stating was a wrong point of view on Genesis. The part “in order of retain their 1st Class dignity” shows that “Genesis never found group activities appealing” is a facade, Genesis acted like he doesn’t enjoy group activities, but in truth, he does, similarly to Angeal and Sephiroth. 

Therefore we can confirm that at least, to this part, the mail from Silver Elite is not wrong about the trio. 

Moving on to the next problem, and I repeat again, from the warning, this is the controversial part. 

“Then they would proceed to have one of the three stand with a dumbapple on his head, while the other two would throw their swords at the apple to pierce it!”

While this sentence sounds fun, what I want to discuss is the reliability. 

First of all, about the dumbapples. We don’t see much dumbapples around in Crisis Core, and especially in Shinra HQ. The places we can spot dumbapples are in Banora, in that one weird room of Shinra Mansion, and a few times Genesis takes it out.  

So to say that the trio would use dumbapples as a dartboard, would mean you have to see those apples around very much, but of course, you don’t. Since the dumbapples are not in abundance, wasting them as a sword throwing boards would be extremely illogical. 

The second issue with this comes from Genesis’s side. To say that the trio would get into the apple sword throwing game means that Genesis would have to agree to play on his own will, so would Angeal, and this may not be true. 

Genesis doesn’t bring the dumbapple out that frequently. We don’t even see him holding the dumabpple until Junon event. In which, he held out the apple as a way to reminisce about Angeal, who has just passed away not long ago. Besides, the Junon’s Sister Ray is a special place to him, it’s the place where the trio had had their very last friendly moment with each other (before the disaster occurred).

The other times he hold the dumbapple are: 

- Nibelheim Reactor, where he offered the apple to Sephiroth, as a way to ask Sephiroth to join him. 

- The bridge scene, where he is seen holding the apple and caressing it to his cheek. 

- In Gongaga, where he offers the apple along with “proving” his theory about the gift of the Goddess for Zack, but when Zack refuses, Genesis simply drops the apple into Zack’s hand. This later proves useful as Zack finally realized that Genesis could be in Banora due to the apple. (I’m pretty sure that when Angeal called Zack as “puppy”, he means Zack’s brain is of a puppy due to how slow he realizes the hints).  

Something to take note about is when Zack found Genesis’s diary. 

Overall, this very small amount of times we see Genesis holding out the dumbapple, his gestures towards it, and his dream to “serve the hero Sephiroth” the apples one day, show that he literally treasures those apples. He held the apple in reminiscence to his dead friend, he wished to serve the apples to his “hero” and he used the apples as a way to invite people to join him. Such a person, with that much respect for the dumbapples, would agree to use them as sword throwing boards? I don’t think so. 

Therefore, this part of the mail about the trio throwing swords at apples as a game may sound fine with Sephiroth, but it doesn’t with Genesis. And knowing Angeal, he grows up in Banora, he sees the dumbapples as precious fruit, and he comes from a poor family, thus, wasting food for games would not sound acceptable to him. 

In conclusion, this mail of Silver Elite can only be trusted from the first half, the rest is totally made up, whether is is made up by Sephiroth’s fans, or even by Sephiroth himself, I am not sure, but I can be sure, the trio would logically never come in the training room to just throw swords at dumbapples. 

Thanks for coming to my Ted-Talk. I will see you later, with a new problem.  ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ 

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Part IV: 

😂😂

My headcanon with Genesis and Caius are both entities that can exist in the Void and they made friend with each other.  And Genesis just embraces his bastard birb synergy. 

Of Zack Fair, Genesis Rhapsodos and the strange narrative POV of FFVII-Crisis Core (Part IV conclusion)

Part I: https://buffaloborgine.tumblr.com/post/650462647672766464/of-zack-fair-genesis-rhapsodos-and-the-strange

Part IVb: https://buffaloborgine.tumblr.com/post/657521891798614016/of-zack-fair-genesis-rhapsodos-and-the-strange

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Warning: As always, I copy paste this warning over and over just in case you ignore it and keep reading down.

“This series is very controversial, it may not fit with what you know or remember about Crisis Core. So please, read the former parts (I did put the link to Part I in case you are new reader) before putting your foot further down below.”

Also, as a new issue rising with this part, I emphasize this again READ THE OTHER PARTS. Don’t say I didn’t warn you, I put that phrase like two times in just this warning.

P/s: I welcome all kind of discussion. I love discussion. But this subject is an OBJECTIVE subject, please make sure to keep your bias and prejudice out of discussion, also, I don’t welcome character dissing or using fallacies in arguments, thank you.

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Summary of part IVa and IVb:

- Zack’s POV has a lot of misleading aspect, it makes you deliberately choose to look away from the bigger problem and focus on the smaller but more appealing problem to your eyes.

- Sephiroth, whether he really makes an astounding achievement in the Wutai War or not, is still used as a propaganda by Shinra to lure in new recruits for the war. This process was repeating over and over, and since Shinra treat SOLDIER members with inequality, there is not a single other SOLDIER gets the privilege to be hailed as “Hero” like Sephiroth.

- Genesis, Angeal, Sephiroth, Lazard, and of course the whole SOLDIER department along with President Shinra know about this unfair working ethic circling around. But they developed different reactions towards the situations, resulting in Genesis leading a large group of 2nd and 3rd to go rebelling against Shinra (with the secret help of Lazard) while the others stay loyal to Shinra (like Sephiroth), or eventually coming up to their own demises through paradoxical ideology (like Angeal).

So the final problem of this part is: Why are most of us feeling alright with all of these above?

Please take this into account when you think about this problem: Crisis Core was the last release of the Compilation, I mean, the team released three games (FFVII Original, Before Crisis and Dirge of Cerberus), one movie (Advent Children), two novels (On the Way to a Smile and The Children are Alright) ahead of Crisis Core. Even if you don’t have access to the novels and Before Crisis, you would have at least playing through OG/DoC or watched Advent Children, right? Then the team of writers/directors have established “Shinra is an evil company” in your head. This fact was repeated over and over throughout all the Compilation.

But then…

You came to Crisis Core.

And you became like a new player.

You suddenly, abruptly forgot that “Shinra is an evil company”.

Without you recognizing it, you felt that working for Shinra may be fine…

You have become Zack.

But, halt there for a second. If you have read all through this theory, and I thank you for doing so, you would be having two types of reaction:

- You feel like “Yeah, I did suspect that. I mean, it doesn’t feel right as I played through the game.”

- You feel like “Why didn’t I notice this before?”

And you would be surprised that the more you think you know about FFVII before you reach Crisis Core, you have higher chance to fall to the second option. New players, who only entered the fandom for a short while, or played Crisis Core as their very first game to get on with FFVII will fall for the first option.

This is a result of an effect called as “Dunning-Kruger effect”.

Dunning-Kruger effect is a hypothetical cognitive bias stating that people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability. Notably, the bias results from an internal illusion in people of low ability and from an external misperception in people of high ability; that is, “the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others”.

With players who have had a lot of time with the franchise before Crisis Core, Dunning-Kruger effect happened when they spent time with other parts and thought that they have understood most of what are represented in FFVII, thus, they came to Crisis Core, thinking confidently that “Yeah, I know the basic set up of the story, I know this, I know that, so nothing can really surprised me.” This thinking eventually leading to them not paying enough attention at the details hidden in plain sight, like, yeah, you know Shinra is evil, and Zack was still thinking that working for Shinra is right, and then you think that whoever opposed Zack must be bad, while you didn’t recognize that you are also saying whoever opposing Shinra is bad. Just thinking like the writers/directors dug a very big hole right in front of your eyes with all stuff released before Crisis Core, you saw them doing so, but yet you still step into that hole.

With players who came to Crisis Core after they go through Remake, well, then they literally have very little knowledge about FFVII. They came to Crisis Core to gain more knowledge, but, problem is, they already have the bias from Remake. I mean, who really don’t get any info from the fandom? In example, with that “Sephiroth is just a victim, him burning down Nibelheim is just a tantrum” circling around the fandom, they easily get the prejudice that “Sephiroth was just a victim, he is not guilty of anything”, while in fact, Sephiroth burning down Nibelheim was because he thinks he is the last surviving Cetra, he was superior over humans and the he was destined to ruled over the Planet, and to be fair, you can’t say that “burning the whole town and murdering the people there just because of believing oneself to be superior than the others” is not guilty. The misconception echoing throughout the fandom, or fanon, usually got to the new players faster than the canon itself. Therefore, without a proper checking, these new players suffered the Dunning-Kruger effect, they tend to believe in what they read/hear from other people in the fandom with too much confidence that they don’t even check it for themselves, resulting in the misunderstanding of Crisis Core’s problem.

However, if you are an old fans or a recently new player who just played Remake and came to Crisis Core, and still feel that the narrative here is a bit weird, then congratulation, you have dodged the Dunning-Kruger effect. Yay!

After all, I can’t claim that my writing in this whole theory thing is right. It’s all just my speculation, and I won’t force you to accept my speculation. I wrote this all out is for discussion.

And yet, there are more to discuss about the narrative of Crisis Core, although, if you read up to this point of this theory, you have to admit that the writers/directors of Crisis Core played you like a fiddle. They know how you would look upon the game, and they actually wrote it in a way to fool you.

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Thanks for coming to my Ted-Talk. I will see you next time, with a different problem to discuss.

Part Va: https://buffaloborgine.tumblr.com/post/658885243477032960/of-zack-fair-genesis-rhapsodos-and-the-strange

Finally they met!

Chibi Void bros.

A theory on what (or who) is the cause of the time paradox/time distortion phenomenon in FFVII Remake (Part I)

Warning: It’s very long wall of words so take your time to read because this writing consists of the elements taken from other Final Fantasy titles and even spin-offs. Many details are taken from Final Fantasy wikia and from my own experiences with the games.  _______________________________________

Before we start talking about this subject, please ask yourself this question: 

“If you have the power to control time and space, thus making you a time traveler, but you only have one chance to time travel, when and where would you travel to? To an unknown future? Return to a point in the past where your best memory lies? Or to that point in the past that you made the heaviest mistakes so you can fix them? Remember, you only have enough power to do it one time.” 

If you take this problem seriously, yes seriously, I think you may choose the same to mine: to travel back to the point where you made the heaviest mistakes to fix them. Maybe it is not the same for all people, some may think they will move to the unknown future because they only have one chance to time travel, why wasting it on reminiscing the past, but if it’s to travel back to the past, I think many will choose to go back to fix their mistake rather than reliving a moment of memory. 

That’s the basic I took to write this theory. For many characters in a franchise, all have their own problems in the past, would they choose to begin again at a random point in their past, or would they choose to go back to fix their heaviest mistakes they made?  ________________________________________

Part I: The fundamental set up of Final Fantasy multiverse - Void

To be in a multiverse means that there rules that one realm has to follow. This is shown in Dissidia series, as all the realms of Final Fantasy multiverse are connected through the flow of a certain anti-matter, Void. The world of Dissidia, or World B, exists like a singularity connected to the Interdimensional Rift, which is basically a Void gate since the Void was cast into the Interdimensional Rift and expanded in it, as shown in FFV. As featured in many FF realms, Void is a very special type of matter, it exists beyond time and space and it flows in between the realms. Thus, people who got stranded into the Void if not totally lose themselves due to the nihilistic nature of it, may get the ability to time and space travel, they become rendered as existence beyond time and space, and is known as Dimensional Travelers.   The two most well-known Dimensional Travelers are Gilgamesh (first appears in FFV) and Shinryu (first appear in FFI): 

Void is not presented in all realms, it may exist in all the realms but only becomes a presented force in some of them. However, we need to look at the concept used to set up Void in Final Fantasy. 

Void (Aether/Emptiness/Nothingness) happens to have multiple definitions, depending on which category you fit it into.  In astronomy, Cosmic voids are vast spaces between filaments (the largest-scale structures in the universe), which contain very few or no galaxies. In other words, Voids are where you can’t find anything in it.  In general philosophy, we have the term “Nihilism”, is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, expressing negation (i.e., denial of) towards general aspects of life that are widely accepted within humanity as objectively real, with the root of word “nihility”, meaning “nothingness”.        In Godai, or Japanese Five Elements Philosophy, Void is of particular importance as the highest of the elements, it represents those things beyond and within our everyday comprehension, particularly those things composed of pure energy before they manifest; the emptiness that the energy is made up of. Bodily, Void represents spirit, thought, and creative energy. It represents the creation of phenomena. It can also be associated with the potential of power, creativity, spontaneity, and inventiveness. In Hinduism, Nirvana is a state of perfect quietude, freedom, highest happiness as well as the liberation from or ending of samsara, the repeating cycle of birth, life and death.

Throughout all the Final Fantasy realms, we see these concepts are used to build either characters, or phenomenon. Many antagonists have nihilism as their motivation, namely Exdeath (V), Kefka Palazzo (VI), Necron (IX), Seymour Guado (X), Caius Ballad (XIII) and Ardyn Izunia (XV). The representation of Void as a type of nothingness space exists in FFI, FFIII, FFV, FFVIII, FFXIII. And Void as an element is seen through out FF realms not directly but mainly through the element crystals: the four crystals seen in many FF realms are of Fire, Water, Earth and Wind elements, these are the four elements in Godai, in the rank of ascension: Earth, Water, Fire, Wind then Void. 

And then we have to look back at FFVII. Even if it looks distinctively different from most of the other realms, it is still a part of the Final Fantasy multiverse. Thus, there will be Void seeping into FFVII realm in a certain kind of form. 

The question is, where do you see it? And in what form?

- First of all, we need to look at the concept of Godai in FFVII. Like I explained above, Godai consists of five elements (with their correspondent colors) in the rank of physical and spiritual ascension: Earth (Black), Water (Blue), Fire (Red), Air (White), Void (basically multicolored or colorless, depends on how you think it is). Of course, listing it like this, where do you see these colors before? 

That’s right, it’s the colored Tsviets, Nero the Sable represents Earth, Azul the Cerulean represents Water, Rosso the Crimson represents Fire and Weiss the Immaculate represents Air.  

Even their designs fit in somewhat reversal to the four elements’ traits in Godai:  1. Earth: stability/stubbornness; holding ground and using strength and presence (source: strength) 2. Water: flexibility/emotionalism; defensive angling and footwork to overextend the attacker before counterattacking (source: power) 3. Fire: aggression/fear; using high energy attacks defensively (source: energy) 4. Air: wisdom/love; evasive, elusive methods that redirect attacks away from their targets (source: resiliency) We all know that Weiss is basically the strongest of the colored Tsviets, and he represents Air, the second highest in the chain of ascension. Even his name, Weiss, is pronounced as “Vice”, either means a very powerful thing, or that of a “person in second in command”. These details hinting the existence of someone above Weiss in the chain of ascension to represents Void. 

- Secondly, we need to look for the concept of nihilism in FFVII. In short explanation, nihilism is a kind of philosophy that deem existence as meaningless. In a positive way, it encourages finding values outsides of physical existence, but in a negative way, it is basically what it means.  It’s not hard to see where this concept could be around in FFVII, as we know in DoC online, Weiss told the Restrictor that “Aren’t you the one saying that death is always with you as long as you are a part of Deepground?”, which shows that his view on existence is trivial, to the point that it may be meaningless. We also see that all the colored Tsviets share the same motive, either that is endless battles (Azul) or that existence means nothing if you are not free (Rosso) or that existence is meaningless without your brother (Weiss and Nero), they all share the nihilistic view. 

- Thirdly, we can look for Void as a nothingness space. This is easy, as we already saw it in DoC, when Nero transported Vincent into an empty space known as “Oblivion”, well, basically “Oblivion” is a word associated to Void. Not even that. what we see in Intergrade implies that Nero’s darkness is actually Void, because with his movesets named, we get “Dark Matter”, “Abyssal Wings”, which is clear indication that it is related to Void more that just normal Darkness element. Not only that, Nero is the only character in FFVII up till now has the ability to “Spatial Shift”, which is one of the two powers Void can give, the other is probably “Chrono Shift”, but we don’t see Nero uses anything related to time, so we are sure he only receives Void power to a certain extend. 

- Lastly, let’s look at the concept of Nirvana. As stated above, Nirvana is considered to be a form of Void, where souls are freed from the cycle of birth and death to achieve perfect happiness and freedom. You may realize where this concept is if you played or watched FFVII OG, because it is the exact concept of the Promised Land.  “ …The Promised Land. So you want to know…? There is no one place called the Promised Land. That’s what I believe. No no, it does exist. Hmmm…… you can say that too. In other words, it doesn’t exist for us, but it did for the Ancients. The Promised Land is the resting place of the Ancients. The life of the Ancients is one continuous journey. A journey to grow trees and plants, produce animals, and to raise Mako energy. Their harsh journeys continued throughout their lives… The place they returned to after their long journey… Their burial land is the Promised Land. Huh? Supreme Happiness? I believe that, for the Ancients, it was the moment that they were able to return to their Planet. At that moment they were released from their fate, and gained their supreme happiness… At least that’s what I believe. I really don’t know whether or not it’s the truth now. “ - Elder Hargo at Cosmo Canyon. 

So, there you have it, FFVII does follow the rule of the FF multiverse as there is Void existing in it in many different forms.  And we know that Void is the matter that grant the ability to shift in space and time for the one that can command it. Remake and OG are probably two parallel timeline, existing in a time paradox, so if you think about it, Void must be taken into account for this phenomenon. 

The question is, who or what commanded the power of Void to create this time paradox? 

We will continue in the next part. Thanks for coming to my Ted-Talk. ________________________________________

Part II: