I really need the tumblr fandom to try and broaden their views on how Angeal and Genesis are perceived in general.
Like, I’m not even joking when I say that the majority of the FF7 fandom still does not care about these characters in the slightest and it’s been that way since 2007.
Tons of people literally either hate them or just acknowledge them as those rando friends of Sephiroth in Crisis Core. The most popular Sephiroth accounts on Twitter tend to hate on them unless shipping is a factor. The fanboy forums trash them regularly. The big FF7 YouTubers rag on Genesis for being annoying without even bothering to look into his deeper character. Angeal is brushed off as a generic samurai or just the “honor guy.” You talk to people on bustling FF7 Discord servers about them you may still just hear about how they didn’t even like that Sephiroth had friends to begin with, because…yeah they don’t like our favorite arsonist too humanized (believe me, that’s its own issue and part of the reason Sephiroth’s overarching fandom ain’t much better).
But the Crisis Core and First Soldier fandom is specifically an unusual place to begin with. People like Zack, yeah, but you start talking about Genesis and Angeal and you’re bound to start a fire somewhere. These characters are just notably controversial in fandom the same way Aerith and Tifa cause chaos just by daring to exist near the male hero as potential love interests.
This fandom thrives on disliking characters for petty reasons.
So when you see the Tumblr fandom actually give a damn and notice little details about say, Angeal that someone who actually cared about CC would want to remember, you better believe that that’s already unusual and important, actually. It’s significant. It shows that an under-appreciated character actually has fans for the reasons the writers intended.
Most people don’t give a fuck that Angeal was a genuine person with hobbies or that Genesis had a complicated relationship with his parents. Most people don’t even give them enough credit to see them as complex characters, and the fact that there are people on this hellsite saying that they think Angeal is cute because he was an enthusiastic kid or that Genesis actually deserves a little bit of sympathy because he was supposed to be written with a tad more depth than he was displayed with in CC, you better believe that this is an oddball thing to come across and that oh trust me, it’s not indicative of some big phenomenon where people are whitewashing all of his actions. Same goes for Angeal. It’s borderline a non-issue.
What’s more accurate is that these fans actually did enough research to understand these characters from the lore that was woven into the game and supplemental materials. Trust me they usually know Genesis and Angeal were flawed, but they also acknowledge them as the victims of propaganda and experimentation that they were, just like Zack. Yes, their flaws DO make them appealing for much of their little fanbase, but so does the fact that they were victims too??
Just because Angeal mentored Zack doesn’t mean he was any more aware of how truly fucked up Shinra was until later on. He joined an organization notoriously skilled at lying to the world with the full intention of being a hero and helper as a teen and didn’t get the full picture until his early 20s. Then he basically fucking killed himself out of guilt and self-loathing.
It’s the same story as Zack’s but with a different ending.
Genesis did unhinged shit when he started degrading but he was also trying to burn Shinra to the ground.
And both of them loved Sephiroth, yes. In their own ways. Genesis biggest dream was to share a piece of his homeland with Sephiroth. Angeal saved Sephiroth’s life from Jenova when they were kids.
Nobody is denying A&G fucked up in their choices but we also know how to say “man idk sometimes it depends and we understand how things ended up that way.” It’s not about excusing any of the characters, it’s about understanding why Shinra is ultimately propped up as the ultimate problem with everything. It’s about seeing the potential in characters who were trying to be good people and didn’t make it because they fell for the worst lies possible and were inherently fucked over from birth.
The game also tries to explain this to you repeatedly. Why do you think Barret’s outburst in Rebirth “Only dumbasses believe that shit!” is immediately countered by Aerith’s “Wait, does that make me a dumbass?” Why do you think Cloud and Zack’s arcs of embracing the legacy of SOLDIER honor and heroism separate from Shinra’s propaganda is significant? This game tells you repeatedly that good people can fall for lies and champion the wrong things, but they can also grow and change and break away from it.
Angeal and Genesis both “broke away” from Shinra in their own ways, but they were also written to be more tragic in their conclusions than some of the other characters, so yeah, we sympathize with and lament for them. We point out the good in who they once were and yeah, people write cute coffee shop AUs for them in weird, niche corners of the fandom like this one and they giddily acknowledge the canon reality of these two being good friends to Sephiroth at one point.
All of that may have fallen apart eventually, but that’s part of the tragedy and you are supposed to see that a good thing was lost.
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