thinking about sephgeal and their debut elements in ever crisis, — ice and water, that is — and how that reflects their lore.
ice and water are (usually) made of the same stuff, but exist within different environmental conditions; water has more of a sense of freedom to it, as it's in oceans, rivers, lakes, evaporating away into clouds (hmm), raining down... as a free flowing fluid, it goes anywhere, gets associated with everyone and is guaranteed to drench you all over without reservations, if you allow it to do so.
ice, meanwhile, is very solid and closed off, harsh.
hostile to touch. (it can burn you and it can severely harm your limbs to the point of amputation, and even kill you.)
it only exists outside of winter in areas that are constantly very cold or in freezers/spaces with monitored temperature.
but!
if you put an ice cube in a glass of water at natural temperature, over time it'll melt and become one and the same with it.
you know, just like how a persistent angeal is able to get through to sephiroth in the end of their robio mission and befriend him to the point that sephiroth is comfortable with teasing him and laughing with him.
then, if we were to expand this into ags, casting an association of fire over genesis — he firagas people freely, summons ifrit and is furiously red...
fire also melts ice, though it's more direct and vicious about it than having to wait for an ice cube in a glass of water to melt down into it.
you can often put off fire with water (y'know like how angeal often interferes when genesis gets too heated up), but fire can also boil water away, and certain kinds of fire can use water to obtain oxygen and burn more intensely (like how you can give genesis some of angeal's blood to keep him from extinguishing, but shouldn't give him sephiroth's cells at all to keep him from exploding into a monster, and also how being in his inhuman condition and being unable to save genesis wears angeal down to the point that he seeks his own end).
fire does those things, which can be quite destructive, but it can also be warm, tender and quite romantic.
you know, just like how genesis in crisis core is often described as a "good boy" or a cherished friend before he started burning himself down and trying to take the world with him?
i don't know, i think it's pretty neat.