played ff7 for first time. am still processing

she/her 26. main: manysad. follow there for nonsense and kh. will tag spoilers for the remake, but *not* the original- until june 15, then all spoilers are untagged.

[hard--knock-life]

The remake really needs to fix the Wutai mess situation. Sephiroth was a preteen when he went and ended the war and for some reason Crisis Core had the war end when Zack was around and Sephiroth was an adult and with a complete different unit. It makes no sense, his success alone is what put Shinra on the map and made boys to name a few from Angeal, Genesis, Cloud and Zack (if I remember correctly) want to join SOLDIER.

[whetstonefires]

He doesn't need to have ended the war as a preteen to have been built up as Shinra's shiny hero tho. In fact the war still being on would kind of help, because it would keep him relevant longer.

And you know a corporation that's at the point of staging intercontinental wars is clearly on all the maps already.

The war timeline is somewhat bewildering (it had already been going long enough to be normal by the time Aerith got out of Shinra as a small child, but was still on when she met Zack in her late teens...long, even with implied ceasefires to lengthen it) but Sephiroth having been fighting it from age 12-ish but it not being over isn't inherently a broken element.

What I want them to fill in is what Shinra gave as the reason for the war, that made it so easy for teenagers from all over the world to view fighting it as aspirationally 'heroic.' Sephiroth's star power only goes so far.

[submarinedog]

Yeah, it's not stated anywhere at all that Sephiroth ended the war as soon as he got on the field and there's plenty of statements completely to the contrary. Shinra was also already on the map before he was born because Midgar was already on the map before he was born. The main change the remake has made to the Wutai War timeline so far is to just have it not have decisively ended at any point. They've been in a ceasefire for as long as Sephiroth's been dead and it could (and will) start up again at any moment.

[theblindhakune]

Playing the og FF7 and it feels like whenever anything happens Cloud is like "did Sephiroth do this?".

>sees Midgar Zolom killed: "Did Sephiroth do this?"

>sees a bunch of guards killed: "Did Sephiroth do this?"

>sees a vat of burnt lasagna: "Did Sephiroth do this?"

>sees an unflushed toilet: "Did Sephiroth do this?"

[breezeinmonochromenight]

I'd be super surprised if Genesis isn't brought in simply due to *Ever Crisis*. Since people are probably going to wonder 'hey, this other guy connected to Sephiroth should be alive during this time period, where is he?' Also, in light of Ever Crisis I feel like we got the question answered of 'can SE still use Genesis to begin with?' pretty clearly with a 'yes'.

Same. It’s too much good material to let go to waste. Not just for the connection to Sephiroth, either. The fact of the matter is they’ve already introduced Sephiroth and made him an ‘end game’ boss. That works once for nostalgia’s sake, but it’s going to get real old real fast to fight him as the final boss of every part of this Remake. You need another threat just to keep things fresh, especially since Zack is apparently alive and Genesis was Zack’s problem. Genesis is the golden here choice because a.) you can flesh him out more and do more with him now that you’re not limited to a PSP and b.) people are going to ask questions if he’s not there but Weiss is showing up given their association.

From a writing standpoint, the “okay literally everybody (even the people back from the dead) dogpile on and stop Sephiroth” route would get so fucking stale because we’ve already done that shit multiple times. You have to up the stakes if you’re truly trying to make this a sequel.

They’ve also been using Genesis as a boss/entity in FFRK and other spin off games for years — and freely use the artwork of him from Crisis Core. Gen also became a playable character in 2019 in FFRK [JP] (2020 Globally). So no. There’s no issue there at all. The whole “SE can’t use Genesis bc Gackt” argument was started by people who don’t like the character and were too stupid to know how copyright works or how to look up JP copyright laws. That’s all there is to that argument.

Edit: I’d also like point out that Gackt likely wouldn’t give a shit even if they got a new voice actor but didn’t change his face at all. Gackt has stated that he thinks Squall Leonhart was based off of him to the point of calling him “Gackt #2” when Nomura has insisted Squall is based off of River Phoenix. He’s never tried to claim copyright there, either, and I mean....

[submarinedog]

I feel like in terms of villain utilization in the old school games, at least the ones i’ve played, 

ultimecia > sephiroth 

in terms of “terrifying mysterious enigma that you only see glimpses of” and just overall efficient use of screentime and buildup as a threat, counting edea and adele as screentime for ultimecia. 

other writing choices may not be too great (laughable, occasionally) and i definitely don’t prefer the gameplay of 8 but just comparing villains and their overall presence throughout their games ultimecia’s one of the better ones, and definitely a couple tiers above sephiroth imo. just comparing 90s game to 90s game. 

now, it’s been a while since i actually tried to play 8 (like a year? year and a half?) so for me to actually go in-detail about this i’d have to go back, play it again, take notes, etc, 

but just overall i feel like she’s got a better presence. and she’s not there constantly. but she is there consistently. 

[violetstar-writes]

Sephiroth in FF7: A bizarre, freakish, enigmatic force that you only catch glimpses of in flashbacks of Cloud’s broken mind or through the equally ominous cloaked figures. You don’t even meet him until nearly halfway through the first chunk of the game and it’s only for like five minutes

Sephiroth in FF7 Remake:

[saanphoenix-deactivated20260411]

I actually prefer that he just stands there menacingly.

In the OG, I kinda didn't notice he was part of the story until he showed up. Or, I should say, he didn't feel like a legitimate threat. I would forget about him. And he didn't even start to really creep me out until the Temple.

But Remake? Because he shows up so much, and from many different angles, I can't let my guard down. He's just gonna pop up and remind me that he is a Problem with Homicidal Intent. And I like that. He feels like a character now and not an unseen goal post that keeps moving, left forgotten as I brutally murder the Planet's last line of defense, breed chocobos, and visit a waterfall to get a gun and a demon.

[submarinedog]

I’m definitely interested in the sephiroth-backstory-focused chapters of ever crisis that’ll apparently be a thing, so I’m curious about when exactly those’ll drop and how they’ll be organized. interludes, maybe? here’s him when he’s 10 and in wutai, here’s him when he’s a little older and meeting genesis and angeal,etc  (i’m curious about what they’ll look like as teens. not because i’m super invested in their characters, i just want to see if angeal ever looked young.) 

[submarinedog]

Maxdood talking about things

I haven’t finished watching the video yet so I don’t know everything that he says

[submarinedog]

wip I’m unlikely to finish. forgot where i was going with it  

[helsensm]

when you got into SOLDIER and now can be idiots with your bro 24/7

it’s so funny to me that Zack, being almost the 1st Class at the beginning of the CC, needs tutorial e-mails and soldier floor tour from Kunsel

[horreurdeluxee-deactivated20190]

Gems from AC Extra DVD (part 1/?)

So, besides owning the 2009 Blu-ray AC Complete movie, I had my good old 2005 two-discs special edition, with amazing extra content. I just wiped the dust off its cover, then put it in my laptop praying it was still functioning, and had some fun going through precious trivia, trailers and deleted “scenes” that, in most cases, are more like “unused lines”; by which I mean, the scene in itself is present in the final version of the movie, but the original dialogue was different. This is an example:

Original line:

Final line: “I pity you. You just don’t get it at all.”

(absent Sephiroth line/Sephiroth doesn’t respond)

Original line:

Final line: “There is not a thing I don’t cherish!”

[ravy-nevermore-archive]

This dialogue is so much better. I think Sephiroth sarcastically replying “What an honor” lends so much to his character and especially how we see him reacting to his hero status in CC.

This is why I love translating the original Japanese or finding out what was originally written but taken out for timing or whatever… Often it’s stuff that DOES say something about who these characters are, even if it’s not “technically canon” because they never ultimately said it.

[witchyseasees]

This makes me feel…weird almost at Sephiroth acknowledging his old life, I mean it’s AC and he’s dropped everything that wasn’t Cloud related and yeah  he knows Cloud was sort of a Soldier and that means in relation to him being First but I don’t know why it makes me sad. Probably cos so many other young lads have said that to Sephiroth over the years.

[prokopetz]

Character whose backstory is like “I’m dark and tortured, I committed war crimes”, but eventually the audience finds out that the war crime in question was violation of Article 54 of Treaty IV of the 1907 Hague Conventions.

[submarinedog]

interesting video about sword physics 

[witchyseasees]

Just found out that Sephiroth in game had a fan club and Jesus Christ they come out with some weird stuff.

It’s noted by themselves that they post “highly personal information” which sounds creepy and invasive enough and then you look at Angeal and Genesis’s fan club posts and people straight up eavesdrop on them and post the conversations.

I’ll admit it’s funny that Sephs club is called The Silver Elite and they discuss his shampoo and that apparently he uses two whole bottles: one shampoo and other conditioner every time he showers. Like holy fuck I don’t have knee length hair, Sephiroth but I don’t think you need to do that! Either that or the bottles are tiny 😂

Also says about how the shampoo has like 13 scents and the words “The scent in the air when Sephiroth tosses his hair changed daily.” Just imagining him speaking to fellow soldiers, slight breeze moves some of his hair and he just flicks it back and suddenly like 10 people are behind him ravenously sniffing the air, nostrils aquiver.

Last thing though that confuses me is it states it was started 20 years ago but Sephiroth is 25 years old?? So he got a fan club at age 5?

[wuekka]

Sephiroth is 30 or over, because Vincent was sleeping in coffin for 30 years, and he went to sleep after Sephiroth was born. 👍

[submarinedog]

That would make him 30 at the time you wake up Vincent though, Crisis Core begins 8 years prior to that. Meaning he’d be ~22 at the start of the game and ~25 at the time of his death. (The timeline wrt Sephiroth’s exact age is not super solid and is confusing at points due to inconsistencies across the compilation. But within CC he’s definitely not older than 25 at any given point.) 

[submarinedog]

considering that lucrecia and hojo were definitely married (per compilation at least, I don’t think it was stated one way or the other in the og), the main thing i glean from the idea of vincent actually being the father is that 

1) lucrecia fucked vincent and then immediately thereafter broke up with him and then married hojo within a two-week period, or

 2) lucrecia broke up with vincent for very fraught emotional reasons and married hojo but continued to have sex with vincent anyway. 

both of which make lucrecia look horribly impulsive in a very unflattering way, and not particularly romantic (but very Romantic in the 19th century understanding of the term)- it fits, it just evokes feelings of “bitch, you live like this?” and not “beautiful tragedy” -at least to me. 

[theblindhakune]

Ok so how does Hojo actually view Sephiroth? What is his opinion on the gorgeous boi? I haven’t played the original FF7 yet so I actually don’t know all the details, but I feel like I’ve seen Hojo call Sephiroth his son. I think I’ve also heard about him being obsessed with Seph, whatever that means, exactly.

[saanphoenix-deactivated20260411]

Hojo is his biological father and, throughout the compilation, he refers to Sephiroth more like his prized specimen than…his son. Even the way he talks to Sephiroth is more like, “Good job, bestest lab rat.” Sephiroth hates his fucking guts for a reason.

…That being said, it’s heavily implied that Hojo is the “chairwoman” of his own son’s fan club in Crisis Core, a fan club that sends emails out to rabid fan girls about exactly what scents of shampoo/conditioner Sephiroth uses when he showers.

….. Because I guess that’s just what you do when you’re such a damn narcissist that people being enamored with your favorite lab rat/son somehow makes you great.

[meteorstricken]

Yup. Typical NPD parent plus fantasy science. Hojo sees Sephiroth as a trophy, as his chief creation, and anything great that comes from that creation is therefore also ‘his’.

Not exactly the sort of father any child ever wants to hear, “I’m proud of you” from, because all it really translates to is, “All you are and do owe themselves to me.”

[submarinedog]

official renders for intergrade yuffie and sonon, gotten off the wiki

[dinoswordsb]

Saw an article complaining that in the remake cloud and Reno's hair looks bad, complicated, impractical and out of place compared to everyone else and like. Yeah thats the point they're bitches next question

[saanphoenix-deactivated20260411]

Reno dyes his hair, too. They're both trying to make their hair look like controlled chaos.