Of Zack Fair, Genesis Rhapsodos And The Strange Narrative POV Of FFVII-Crisis Core (Part IV Conclusion)

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

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

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

Part Va: https://buffaloborgine.tumblr.com/post/658885243477032960/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.” 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.  ______________________________________

Given several days of me not updating the series, how much do you still remember about it without rereading it? 

Your brain is designed to stay focus on the event that happens right in front of your eyes, that’s why you have the thing called as “temporal memory”. But of course, while it helped you keeping track on upcoming events, temporal memory will erase anything that exceeds its amount of remember time, so you simply can’t rely on your own brain to remember all of the events happening in a scenario. Hence why you are always suggested to note down important stuffs, so you can get noticed about them if you don’t remember. 

Remember last time I asked you about what Genesis held in his hand during his first meeting with Zack in Banora’s apple juice facility?  I know you would instantly say that it was his book, LOVELESS… 

… but of course, it’s not.  It was a torn and either soaked or burnt paper. 

So, again, the question is, why does this information matter? 

Let me ask you another question. Remember that book LOVELESS? Asides from that one single scene in the training room battle cutscene, where else did you see it in the whole game? 

Well, the answer is, nowhere. You don’t see that book appearing anywhere else, except for that one scene. 

Then, where did it go? 

Of course, this again is another case, of Desyncing Information.  You know, Genesis is always considered a douche, for being envious toward Sephiroth, and while I did clear up this mess in the other parts of this series, I want to talk about you feel like Genesis is a douche if you just play the game once and never go back to dig out the hidden things around. 

One is because you see that Genesis treated Zack quite like an asshole, and since you are in love with Zack, you see that Genesis is an asshole. 

Then you are also in love with Sephiroth, so seeing Genesis being envious of Sephiroth’s glory, you think that he is a douche for doing so. 

And then while Angeal and Sephiroth suffered from their mental breakdown after learning that they are “monsters”, Genesis actually doesn’t show any sight of being in a mental breakdown or suffering mentally from learning that he himself is a “monster”. You don’t get any info about his background or see him struggling, nothing blatant to prove that he is a sad, suffering character. 

All those reasons above are why you find it hard to sympathize with Genesis. And I understand, I was like you all too, I have the feeling that he is not truly a douche, but it was hard to look for any proof about it. But then when I actually play the game myself, with the knowledge of what is about to happen, I realized that I should have looks more carefully into minor details. 

Just like how I pointed out that one very small sentence during a dialogue could change a whole understand about a scene, now, one very small detail that you would actually have missed during your first time playing, is about to change your view on Genesis’ character. 

That one paper he held in that Banora’s facility scene is in sync with the one paper you saw flying to the chair during the scene when Weiss and Nero picked Genesis up into the helicopter. The first time you saw Genesis in the game, he was holding one paper, and reciting the first act of LOVELESS. The last time you saw him, there is also a paper, and Genesis’s voice reciting the last act of LOVELESS. 

Coincident? I think not. 

So we can safely assume that torn and damage page we saw is actually a page from Genesis’s LOVELESS book, just like the blank, clean page we saw at the end. Still, where is the book if the pages are now like that? 

You guess it. 

The transition from the book to the torn pages happen outside of what is shown in the game. So here is my theory. 

You saw the book still intact in the training room scene, then Genesis went MIA to rebel against Shinra, when you met him after his whole mess, you saw the page. That means Genesis somehow tore the book apart, even tried to burn it or soak it, because who do you think would be able to touch that book aside from Genesis himself? Like, yeah, obviously it can only be him doing so, that’s why the torn pages stayed with him till the end. And the time the transition happened, was also the time that Genesis suffered from learning that he is a “monster”. Genesis loves that LOVELESS book so much he decorated and brings it to his side anytime, anywhere he goes, then how could it becomes like that. To my speculation, Genesis tore the books out in his rage of mental breakdown, where he damaged the thing he loved the most. 

In conclusion, Genesis is just like Angeal and Sephiroth, he did suffer from the mental breakdown, just that it’s not so clear for you to see, so when you don’t see it, you just deem Genesis as an asshole. 

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Thanks for coming to my Ted-talk, I will see you around in the next part. 

Part Vc: 

Without the heart, the head has no compassion– Without the head, the heart has no reason– Without the hand, both are nothing– Without all three co-existing, There is no balance to any one

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

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

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

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Warning: Again, I warn you, 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.  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. Thank you. 

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The real matter at hand and why you didn’t realize it 

I usually compare the narrative of Crisis Core like a minefield and people just happily hug the mines while they go kaboom with them. 

In Crisis Core, the is a very big elephant in the room but most of the time, people forget that it exists.  So here I will give you some cutscenes and a mail that I will analyze later on the main writing of this part. These things are important but they are very short and people mostly don’t remember them, not not remember them exactly.  Remember to look carefully at each word used in the sentences and the way the scenes are laid out (even the motions of the characters), they may be extremely important. 

Exhibit 1: 

Exhibit 2: 

Exhibit 3: 

Exhibit 4: 

Exhibit 5: 

Like I said, these are very important stuffs, treat them carefully.  I will see you guys again, in the next part.  _____________________________________

Part IVa: 

AeriSeph Week Day 1 Prompt: Conflict/Connection 💞

Aerith x Sephiroth - Separate Ways (Conflict x Connection)

My submission for AeriSeph Week 2021 Event for Day 1 Prompt's theme which is Conflict / Connection.

"And ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation." ~ Kahlil Gibran

This is inspired by a fanfic I read where Aerith and Sephiroth are lovers but due to the circumstance when Sephiroth learned about Project S and Jenova, he began to change. He became fixated on his desire to become god which leads to their separate ways.

Despite of that, Aerith knows deep in her heart that the real Sephiroth is not like that. Through all the times they've been together, she holds deep inside that no matter what, she will never give up for the both of them and of course for the Planet.

Before Sephiroth's crisis began, she already heard voices from the Planet about the "sleepless nights" he had. It made her worry about the premonitions she has been seeing in her dreams about him that she would always pray to the Planet to give her the guidance she needs to prevent it from happening.

So the main theme of this head canon of mine is that despite the conflict they had due to external circumstances, their connection with each other still remains. They both know that they love each other, only that, Sephiroth forgets because of his "crisis".

Aerith keeps on telling him that "Love will find him and will break the chains that bind him" because she has faith for the both of them.

And she keeps on telling him too that, "You know I still love you though we touched and went our separate ways."

And in the end, Love Wins 💖

📩 I uploaded this video in my YouTube Channel.

💌 Please check it out!

💐 Thank You! 💐

#AeriSephWeek2021 #AeriSephWeek #aerisephweek2021 #aerisephweek

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: