[This was written by my husband! His current tumblr is @videxphxtxgraphy, though as you can see, his blog is so new that I can’t properly tag him. I was planning to edit this up a bit, but to hell with it. Here’s his (and my) hot take on a theory on Final Fantasy VII BEFORE the Remake drops!]
I've been trying to get this to MatPat directly, but hell with it, I'll share it with you guys! I've had this theory for several years, and this is the first time I've voiced it. In my time on the internet, searching for anyone else who had this theory, I've seen a single post that brought up the same points, with the same evidence. ONE!
I'll separate this theory into confirmed information, stuff that is told to us directly in the canon, and possible information, stuff that can be inferred from So, without further ado, my FF7 theory...
Is the true name of Red XIII's race.
Throughout the span of three games, multiple books, OVA's, and a movie, we've been told of nearly everything in this world...EXCEPT for the name of the race of a prominent character. Doesn't this seem weird? I think that Square had told us, and none of us caught it!
Let's take a look at what we know about Red XIII, or Nanaki's (I will be using the two names interchangeably ahead) race:
*They are an incredibly long lived race, ageing roughly one year for every three of ours, as Bugenhagen had told us.
>Bugenhagen
"Ho Ho Hoooo. I hear that you looked after Nanaki a bit."
"Nanaki is still a child you see."
"Please stop, grandfather. I'm 48."
"Ho Ho Hoooo. Nanaki's tribe has incredible longevity."
"So you see his 48 years would only be equivalent to say that of
a 15 or 16 year old in human reckoning."
*His race was connected to the planet, as evidenced in FF:Before Crisis, where he and another of his race, Denah, are in the process of doing a ceremony to "appease the planet" that is held every fifty years, that requires a male and female of his species. From this, we can infer that his species has been responsible for this for quite awhile, and that the race has a connection with the planet, a thought that is strengthened by Bugenhagen himself being able to hear and understand the Planet, as well as being able to read the language of the Ancients.
*His race is intelligent, at least to the same level of humanity.
*Hojo attempted to breed Red XIII with Aerith with the intent to create a child that would live long enough to allow Shin-Ra to experiment with to find the Promised Land.
>President Shinra
"How long will the research take?"
>Hojo
"Probably 120 years. It's probably impossible to finish in our
lifetime. Or in the lifetime of the specimen too, for that matter."
>(Hojo turns away from the table.)
>Hojo
"That's why we're thinking of breeding her. Then we could create
one that would withstand our research for a long time."
>President Shinra
"What about the Promised Land? Won't it hinder our plans?"
*A prominent site near Nanaki's home-town, Comso Canyon, is the Ancient Forest, and while Ancient could simply refer to it being old, what is another Ancient we hear of regularly?
I believe that Red XIII is a Cetra.
This sounds insane; after all, we see two Cetra in the game (Aerith and ilfana), and neither of them have any dog or feline-like features. So, let's look a little more into the Cetra.
*The Cetra are a race similar to humanity, sharing our language and our intelligence.
*The Cetra are deeply connected with the planet, able to communicate with the planet.
*The Cetra were deeply spiritual.
Do these sound familiar? These sound a lot like our friend Nanaki, as well as the denizens of Cosmo Canyon. But none of these answer the question I posed:
If Nanaki IS a member of the Cetra, why does he look like he does? To answer this question we need to go to the Ilfana herself. In Icicle inn, you can find recordings of Aerith's parents, Professor Gast and Ilfana. During one of which, she says the following:
Ilfana: "That's when it appeared! It looked like... our... our dead mothers... and our dead brothers. Showing us specters of their past."
Scientist: "Who is the person that appeared at the North Cave? I haven't
any idea."
Ilfana: "That's when the one who injured the Planet... or the 'crisis from the sky', as we call **him, came."
[NOTE:: **might be a translation error; script was directly copy and pasted]
>(She covers her face with her hands.)
Ilfana: "He first approached as a friend, deceived them, and finally...... gave them the virus."
Ilfana: "The Cetra were attacked by the virus and went mad...transforming into monsters."
>(She sinks to the floor. The scientist runs over to her)
Ilfana: "Then, just as he had at the Knowlespole. He approached other Cetra clans...... infecting them with... the virus..."
Now, from this, we learn that the Cetra were infected by Jenova cells, went mad, and became monsters, in a similar way that we see can happen to humans, such as Hojo and the various numbered hooded NPCs that wander the world. However, we also know there are multiple beings who were infected with Jenova cells who mutated, but did not go mad, namely SOLDIERs’ three golden boys: Angeal, Genesis, and Sephiroth. As well as the bosses in Dirge of Cerberus, who were injected with Genesis' genes, and at least one of them, Azul the Cerulean, was able to mutate, though he kept his mind intact.
This is to say nothing of SOLDIER, all of its members being injected with Jenova cells, and yet, none of them are monstrous. All of these cases are done via artificial means, so it leaves one to wonder what direct exposure to the cells would do.
More evidence comes from the creepy scientist everyone loves to hate, Hojo. And to me, this is perhaps the most decisive evidence. When Cloud and the crew goes to rescue Aerith, they interrupt Hojo attempting to forcibly breed the two. Why would Hojo be doing this? The common answer is a joke, saying that Hojo is just creepy like that. While this MAY be true, President Shinra himself is not. President Shinra is a greedy, corrupt official, who's biggest concern of murdering thousands of his own citizens is how much gil that will take out of his pocket. This doesn't seem like the type of man who would give his precious gil to a crazy scientist for no reason, especially given how implausible breeding these two seems. This implies that President Shinra believed this was possible, leading me to believe Hojo had given proof that the breeding was possible, likely through DNA or blood samples.
Of course, this is just a theory, but it is something that, as I said, I have very rarely seen discussed, and I also truly believe this is what was intended. We have the backstory to the Buster Sword, for crying out loud, but not so much as a single line mentioning Nanaki's species name? Believe what you will, theorists, but that is my theory, and that is my response to the idea that there is nothing else to be discussed about FF7.
