#final fantasy 7 remake theory

[angel-sephiroth]

Careful now. That which lies ahead...does not yet exist.

Our world will become a part of it...one day. But I...will not end.

Nor will I have you end.

[deathberi]

flowers blooming / hollow

[secondarysefikura]

I'm not going to go TOO in depth about this cause I don't think a lot of people really want me to ramble about political theory and such, but I think Shinra would have secretly been quite grateful for the terrorist attacks caused by Avalanche at the start of the game.

Why? Well it's about this little thing called diversionary war. Diversionary war is great for governments that have recently been involved in some sort of scandal, because it rallies the people who might have been very upset about said scandal around a common enemy. Think "celebrity flooding the news with some sort of fluff story to take attention away from the massive lawsuit they're in" type thing.

With that in mind, imagine you are Shinra. You have done your fair share of unethical things, but it's not really all that worrisome since everyone who knows about the bad things you have done either a: works for you and therefore can't whistleblow without incriminating themselves or b: is dead/being experimented on in a lab somewhere. Life is good.

But then one of your ex-employees, who happens to know about one of the really bad things you covered up AND who you have been experimenting on for a few years escapes. Well shit. If he whistle blows, others might follow suit. And the dead body he's dragging with him means he isn't exactly stuble, even if he's trying to hide. It's only reasonable to assume that he is going to try to let people know about all the things you have been up to.

And sure you managed to kill him, but that doesn't mean he wasn't at large for quite a while. Who knows what kind of public outcry might be brewing. If only something really terrible happened that would distract everyone from the bad things you've done and make everyone rally around you. If only...oh, Avalanche attacked? Well isn't that convenient. We now have public enemy number one to put any and all blame on.

[sephirthoughts]

Sephiroth's Weight

I have been thinking about this a lot today none of your business is why and I have come to a conclusion, based on 100% scientific facts, solid evidentiary support, and total delusion: Sephiroth weighs, at the very least, 400 lbs.

I don't want to bog us down in too much scientific terminology, but that is what all of us here in the research lab refer to as a "brick shithouse" of a man.

Evidence, you say? Factual support, you demand? This is my lab who are you to make demands! But I do actually have some.

So, according to a bunch of fitness websites, the ideal weight for a 6'7" dude would be 270 lbs. However, men with a more muscular physique, such as bodybuilders, tend to weigh quite a bit more.

This is Dutch actor and tallest bodybuilder in the world, Olivier Richters, for context. He is 7'2" and weighs 350lbs.

And here is totally shredded hunk of 100% certified bio-engineered beef Sephiroth, who clocks in at between 6'7" and 7'0" (by the remake character models, not the outdated and poorly translated old guides).

We know he's slightly shorter than Olivier, and as we can see, he is a bit leaner, but not by a whole damn lot. So, why do I say he must weigh substantially more?

Two words: Ho-jo. That's right, these Hojo-made super-soldiers are built tough as fuck. Even normal humans increase their bone density with regular exercise, and these guys basically live to work out. They are constantly in training or war, lift huge amounts of weight, sustain extreme impacts of all kinds, and cut missiles in half with swords.

No amount of increased muscle strength would matter a damn, if your tissues and bones couldn't handle the extraordinary strain, so it stands to very good reason that due to the genetic fuckery and the mako treatments, their muscle and bone density is much higher than a regular human's. How much higher? How the hell would I know, I'm not a boneologist.

That's why my scientifically magnificent and flawlessly researched rough estimate is around 400 lbs for Sephi, at the very least. Am I right? Maybe. Am I fixating on a detail no one else cares about? Probably. Was this entire post an excuse to post a bunch of shirtless pictures of Sephiroth? WHAT ARE YOU THE COPS?

Anyway, here are some more shirtless pictures of Sephiroth.

[sxddix1021]

saw this on reddit and thought i'd share because this was my first time hearing this theory. for those who don't know, Zangan was the guy who trained Tifa in martial arts. (poster is Lucky_Mix_6271 on FFVIIRemake subreddit)

[thebirdqueen]

I wouldn't be surprised if this was a hot take in some way but I honestly fuck with the idea of Dad Vincent when it isn't connected to him being Sephiroths dad....

[pen-and-umbra]

The episode features a rather conspicuous bas-relief carved both on the exterior and the interior of the abandoned Hodono temple. A tall, spindly, unfamiliar figure with long arms and what appears to be a spiky hairdo or headpiece seems to be bound or secured across the torso.

… And yet a loosely similar depiction was seen in a flashback where Sephiroth was reading Gast's journal. The creature's monstrous appearance in the vision contradicted both Professor Gast's description of Jenova and the traditional Jenova look in the Mako chamber.

Its spindly arms bear an odd similarity to the carved depictions in the temple that supposedly entombed the beast, which terrorized the Ancients in the same way that Jenova did. Similar to Jenova, the beast brought death and destruction before being defeated and sealed by the Ancients at a great expense. Thus, the core elements of the story share a common skeleton.

Additionally, the possible headpiece, if it is one, bears resemblances to the Shadowblood Queen's portrayal in the Queen's Blood, further connecting it to Jenova's story.

@pen-and-umbra

[nierielfaegir]

I feel like, while the other characters will be grieving Aerith's death, Cloud will be less "sad" because he knows Aerith still "lives" somewhere and he can see her again.

And with all this "different worlds coming together" talk and what the producer Yoshinori Kitase said about spending nearly 30 years with FFVII's characters, he wants to make them happy and give them a happy ending, it makes me think of a possibility where these two could find each other again and be together.

For example, Zack and Aerith get out of the "limbo" between realities and come to Cloud's world (Zack's world doesn't exist anymore). So in the end Cloud gets both his best friend and the woman he loves back.

However, he also said that the rest of the team would also be taken into consideration, so it won't just be "happiness and rainbows", so... Good luck everyone.

[phoenixcatch7]

Okay but why haven't we had a time travel/fix it fic where after some shenanigans everyone decides to take down shinra, they split up to take out the important figures, sephiroth obviously takes hojo for any and all of a dozen good reasons.

And then hojo pulls a winter soldier sleeper code on him.

And then everyone is suddenly dealing with a brainwashed sephiroth.

-

Hojo has to have some way to control sephiroth as he grew into his monstrous strength and power, yes? And learned helplessness isn't enough of a reassurance your prized military leader powerhouse isn't going to wake up one day and realise just how easily he could paint the labs walls red with chunks of you. And because hojo is obsessed with total power and control, dealing with a murder machine with huge mental issues, it'd only be fitting he create his own emergency shutdown.

In the most needlessly traumatic and mentally violating way, of course. Would sephiroth even know, if he couldn't remember? Would he have long stretches of emptiness in his memories that never get explained to him, or would he wake up where he'd blacked out, just another day in the labs?

Imagine, his allies watching on the cameras, as sephiroth stalks into the labs, a predator sighting its prey, exchanging a few cold words with hojo, raising masamune... And then hojos mouth opening, sephiroth going stiff like an animatronic, rearranging himself on the floor where he stood, face hidden behind his hair. Hojo leaves the room and he doesn't move, doesn't respond to any comms or passing scientists accidentally rolling a cart over his coat and hair.

Hojo ordering sephiroth to reveal their plans, their allies, their resources. Sephiroth doing it. Hojo deciding to punish sephiroth for the rebellion with lab procedures, or hojo ordering him to hunt down his co conspirators and end the takeover. Sephiroth doing so, heavy in his steps, crashing through walls and doors, heedless now of morals or civilians, silent, unresponsive. So completely unlike the jenova malice they'd been prepared to fight, that sephiroth had been bracing against. No arrogance, no mocking, no dramatic battlefield or hungry glowing eyes.

The puppeteer becomes the puppet, and with it, every trace of holding back. The perfect soldier.

I imagine the first trigger word would be lucrecia.

[professional-sephiroth-scrungler]

FFVII REMAKE- Location: The Drum

FFVII REBIRTH trailers

They getting put in The Drum

[silvergreenseraphim]

A Twitter user pointed this out and so I made an example video. Um. There is a weird musical connection between The First Soldier and Remake. I am not sure if this is coincidence or if they are trying to create a connection. Does anyone know where either theme originated?

[azuree1733]

REBIRTH COMES OUT SO SOON

[crayistic]

FF7 Rebirth Ending Theory ahead so Spoilers!

This is your last chance..... be carful.... I'm deep diving into theory's here lol

- 3

- 2

- 1

- OK!

So i had to get this out of my brain somewhere and this is the best place I could think of. I have been wreaking my brain trying to get my head around a quite confusing ending however I think i have finally settled on what I'm going to believe. Feel free to have your own opinions or questions! All respect and love from over here. =]

I'm working of the fact that there is multiple worlds being created every time the original plan (I.e original game runs) is challenged or changed. So this would mean there is a timeliness running and every time it does its supposed to be a set story but at some point sephiroth got wind of this and challenged fate because he was sick of loosing. Doing this brought the whispers to try and stop him fucking with fate, them themselves also then impacting in someway just for being present.

So far I think we have seen 6 worlds be created. - the one we are in, playing from remake. Being our world. (World 1)

-the one created when we fought the whispers changing fate meaning zack was then saved. (Say world 2), this is the world where he goes after hojo to save cloud.

-2 other worlds are then created one going after biggs and the bomb (world 3) and one where he is outside of the church that sephiroth turns up outside of (world 4)

-one world where aerith and cloud go on their date (world 5)

-and finally one cloud creates when he manages to hit sephiroths sword away from Aerith. (World 6, the only one we dont see a differnt stamp yet)

(It's good to note here that at points where worlds are "created" there seems to be some sort of rainbow effect that happens around them. Examples, Tunnel in the train station, Aerith when she pushes cloud into the portal, zack when he falls through floors into the portal, cloud when he hits sephiroths sword)

We have confermations of atleast 5 worlds by the fact that we see atleast 5 differnt stamp dogs In differnt scenes. However it us also possible that there are more worlds. Each world destiny is to have sephiroth try to destroy it, however he is supposed to be foiled by cloud and the gang minus aerith. However if anything is different, such as tifa, barret and red being dead and aerith and cloud being unconscious then clearly they are not there to defeat him in that world resulting in it being destroyed.

(Side note... the rip in the sky im undecided on if this is a result of multiple worlds, a world that has been changed from the original or if it means the inevitable of its end. Though it would make sence if it is a change present in that world as cloud now has knowledge he didn't before and has been in or is from another world. Also maybe why the others can't see it... but again still quite unsure)

So, I believe when cloud in our world fell with aerith, she herself was saved by him taking the brunt of the fall. I think he was knocked out and then woken up or was pulled into another world were a differnt aerith was waiting for him who knew he would need her holy. We know our cloud is capable of either hearing or seeing some of the other world/s through the fact that he goes to sleep and seems to be connected for a brief moment somehow. In this world he wakes up in, aerith is there with her ribbon in her hair waiting for him. I say this because it's easy to assume he wakes up in the world (world 2) we have been flipping back and forth from as zack but I don't think it is as zack leaves with aeriths ribbon, but also the stamp dog that is present behind him when he is on the train track is a differnt stamp dog that is present when aerith and cloud are on their date after he wakes up in that world world 5). I also think its a differnt world (world 4) to the one where zack is sat outside the church as jonny walks by with again a differnt stamp plush.

When cloud is then pushed into a portal he at first he lands somewhere where he is attacked by whispers. Assuming this is trying to stop him from handing the white materia back to aerith. After the fight he is greeted by one aerith saying we'll we meet again... as if she hadn't just seen him a moment ago. She seems to keep appearing and reappearing from behind trees. I believe these are multiple aeriths from differnt worlds and the one he gives the white materia to is our (world one) aerith, as when she dies we see the materia fall and it is in fact not empty like it had been before.

He then returns to our world (world 1) Ok so now stay with me here... I think at this point this cloud is actually two clouds in one, from world one and world 4. If you remember Marlene saying to zack that he has to make cloud better. She talks about how he trys to save her but doesn't make it in time to zack has to make him better so he can wake up and save aerith. So with this, we then see the scene where aerith is about to die and side by side we see two differnt fates play out. One where he doesn't save her and one where he does. Again we also see the rainbow effect when he knocked sephiroths sword away. We don't see just one outcome, we see them overlap as if they are happening at the same time. This is why I think there could be the presence of two clouds. With aerith being saved this created a new world (world 6).

We know it's possible to have people jump worlds as seen by zack for sure after he fights with cloud back to back. Possibly with aerith also where she was given the white materia. We know there is a theory of worlds merging and coming apart from things sephiroth says aswell as zack the last time we see him. I think the aerith that comes to help cloud fight sephiroth is our aeriths spirit (as she fades away at the end similar to the life force of the plannet) and I think the aerith we see at the end is in fact the one that was saved when cloud deflected the sword. Its possible he can see her because the line between worlds is thin for him after being through the portal and so on. The same with when aerith touches red and he seems to be able to feel her presence. Maybe the reason cloud can see the rip in the sky is also something to do with the lines between worlds being blured for him and why the others can't see it.

It's also possible that is wasn't two clouds and that it was just one, that created another world by saving aerith.. but it makes more sence to me that there would be two as how could one cloud create two possibilities. Unless what was happening was... and again stay with me haha

Maybe our cloud isn't the only cloud we see. We assume it is because we play as him but what if we are just seeing two worlds at once crossing over eachother that is happening at the same time. I'm not sure... but i do think it's in the ball park of either or theory's I have.

Obviously there are holes here and there in every theory because square enix have made is impossibly complicated lol however I still love it and I'm loving the changes and possibilities.

I do think the third game will be focusing on stoping sephiroth and whatever he has planned while joining all of the worlds together again. I do think they plan on having atleast aerith survive somehow this time, I'm hoping for zack to. Either way, I have absolutely loved playing final fantasy VII rebirth, the story, characters, side missions, music, visuals... all of it was fantastic and I can not wait for the end installment. I know there is alot of og fans (me being one of the og fans also) that are disappointed that its not a direct remake but I can say I am not one of them. I think the way that have done this is so clever to also make sure the original was cannon and did also happen and I'm also excited when im playing and see something that is new or different. It gives me something to look forward to with also anxiety of not actually knowing what the outcome will be now.

Anyway, time for me to continue with my post game blues after my 100 hour plus game play! If you read all of my rambles, thanks for sticking around and I hope you have had an awesome day/night.

[usagifuyusummer]

I've been snooping around since Rebirth came out because, man, ever since FFVIIR, I can't stop thinking about FF7...

After seeing Zack's parents, I can definitely see how his hair is both a mix of his parents styles. The front part from his mom and the spiky parts from his dad.

We do know Zack's light blue green mako eye color isn't natural, so from what we can see from his parents, we can conclude that Zack had a more brown-ish green-ish grey-ish lighter eye color before becoming a SOLDIER?

(Does anyone else have a more accurate desription on what they think Zack's original eye color might be like?)

I wonder how Zack looks like with the eye color we can see from his parents here. Admittedly, I do think that the scene is quite dark for me to truly observe his parents models design, since it is really different from the OG design.

I wish there was someone out there who could rip those models out for people as curious as me to observe. As they did bring up some info on Gongaga that I thought was really intriguing, like why tell us that? Why bring up that the Cetra descendants settled in Gongaga and lived in seclusion??? Why not just give us a full mock history book in the game that tells us the places where the Cetra have migrated or were prominent in? I have even more questions in my head than answers right now... Its brainrotting bad lmao.

Hm, I hope Part 3 clears up the questions I have on Zack and some FF7 stuff...

And how in the hell the Planet as a character is going to be portrayed??? Will Zack or the whole cast meet Minerva again to beat her ass up the second time??? Is Genesis even possible at this point, since there's only one part left to explain this whole thing...

I really hope Zack gets a DLC or specific story parts if they didn't have time to fully expand on some Crisis Core loose ends, Jenova and Dirge of Cerberus stuff... Maybe they're planning to do that after the main games end??? I don't know, there's just too many uncertainties right now. And I'm just rambling out of my mind lmao.

Side note, I didn't know what to describe Zack's parents eye colors, so if what I wrote in the poll is not accurate, sorry for that. Unless either someone tells me, or I read/watch an analysis of this somewhere, then I'll change it. This is the limit of my knowledge on this so far. Discussions are open for anyone of course, if there are any who think about this as much as I do lol.

I don't know if polls can be reopened, since I don't really want to have a time limit on this one. I'm just curious on what others think of this. If my post ever gets far of course... That's why I didn't want the time limit. I'll see what happens then. Thanks for reading my ramblings this far.

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #126

I made a tea today before heading to therapy. Today's session was extremely productive, and I can't wait to share it with you in hopes that you'll also be able to use what I've learned. But first, I will show you today's tea, because in it is the final ice cream I got from the co-op...

I started with chai:

This one is red and somewhat opaque from all the spices that are in it:

...And this is the ice cream I intended to use in it:

...I'm like you in that I very much enjoy pumpkin; it's one of my favorite foods. And it's AMAZING in ice cream. Given that we know you enjoy pumpkin soup, I think you would REALLY enjoy this flavor. It's part of why I saved this one for last; it's the best one!

I filled the tea with scoops of this ice cream:

Once it melted, I stirred it up:

...The result was fantastic, and once again, I have concocted a delectable mug of tea that I very much wish I could share with you.

My therapist was very pleased with the results of my homework. He read the letters I exchanged between myself and my inner child. We then began going over ways of rebuilding my relationship with my inner child. We started with learning how to rebuild secure attachment.

Oh right. Hey, Sephiroth? Did they ever teach you about attachment theory over at Shinra? I can't imagine they did, because otherwise, you would have realized A LOT sooner that the way you were raised was utter fucking bullshit. Maybe you've since learned about it during your time at the Edge of Creation, but I'll explain it anyway; it's always good to have a refresher. But it might be kind of a dry or dull subject for you, so I'll break it up with the pictures I snapped for you during the walk I took after therapy; walking is good for the post-processing of newly-learned things.

Attachment theory refers to the integrity of the bond between a child and its primary caregiver(s). I have a degree in this sort of stuff, and I'm fairly well-versed in it, especially regarding how it relates to trauma. Bonding with a primary caregiver is one of the most fundamental human needs, and the shape that this bond takes ends up influencing how the child bonds with other people throughout their life. There are four main attachment styles. I'll explain them:

Secure Attachment is when the child is able to fully trust that their caregiver(s) will respond to their needs and keep them safe. These children are able to focus their energy on exploring the world around them. They are relatively friendly with strangers. They typically get sad if their primary caregiver leaves the area unexpectedly, and is happy to see them return. This attachment style is best conducive to a child's mental health and ability to learn.

In order for secure attachment to occur, the child between 0 and 3 years of age REQUIRES on-demand caregiving; the primary caregiver(s) are supposed to respond immediately to the child, with love, warmth, attunement, comfort, and appropriate actions literally every single time the child expresses a need. Babies are not born knowing what their body signals mean; a tired baby cries when it's tired instead of sleeping because it does not yet know that the feeling of being tired means it needs to sleep. A hungry baby cries instead of eating because it does not yet know that the feeling of being hungry means it needs to eat. And these are just a few examples.

Contrary to popular belief (seriously, my father calls babies "turd factories", just to give you an idea of how common it is in my world to have contempt and a dismissive attitude towards human children), human babies are more than just a digestive system that sleeps sometimes. Babies have emotions as well, and so they'll cry when they feel lonely, angry, scared, or sad. They'll cry when they need to be held (because YES, gentle, loving, platonic touch is a BASIC HUMAN NEED; adults typically experience hormonal disruption and very young babies WILL LITERALLY DIE if they don't get this). They'll also cry if they're sick, if they're in pain, if they're too warm or cold, or if they're in sensory overload.

And this is NORMAL and HEALTHY; humans are born with the capacity to ask for help when they're struggling, and being new to being human is its own very special kind of hell for a variety of complicated reasons that deserves to have its own book. For many very compelling reasons, being a human baby is basically torture. If you want a more detailed explanation as to why that's the case, then I can explain it in another letter; just let me know. For now, just take my word on it.

Anyway, the only thing that can teach baby what their body signals mean is the repetition of prompt and accurate routine care; baby learns hungry means it needs food only after MANY repetitions of the caregiver responding promptly, warmly, and lovingly to its hunger with age-appropriate food. Baby learns that tired means it needs sleep only after MANY repetitions of the caregiver promptly and lovingly soothing the baby to sleep. And this takes a lot of time and patience, because human babies are not born with all of the brain hardware that they need in order to learn or to make memories efficiently; all of that stuff is still growing in. To be sure, humans could use at least another 9 months in the womb; we are born premature compared to most of the rest of the animal kingdom. But if we had another 9 months, our skulls would be too large, and we'd tear our mothers in half on the way out. So this is how it is.

Babies from 0-3 years old are NOT equipped to deal with discomfort without thinking that their life is in danger, and no amount of "trying to teach them to self-soothe" by leaving them on their own to "cry it out" (this is a MYTH!!! doing this causes LITERAL BRAIN DAMAGE as the baby's body is flooded with neurotoxic levels of adrenaline and cortisol!!!) will make the brain hardware required for self-regulation grow in faster; in fact, doing this will slow this process down. The child under age 3 who becomes quiet after being left to cry is not quiet because it has "learned to self-soothe"; it is quiet because it is SO STRESSED OUT that its body and emotions have basically shut down. This is called "dissociation", and if baby is forced to do this too often, it fucks up their mental health later, when they become adolescents, teenagers, and adults.

Unfortunately, there is a pervasive myth in my world, which tells parents that responding to their under-3-year-old child when they cry will cause their child to become spoiled and manipulative. As a result of this, secure attachment with a primary caregiver is relatively rare where I live. Almost everyone in my world is traumatized, in some form or another. And people just go around pretending like it's normal and necessary and even correct. There are reasons for this, but they'd take too long to explain; maybe I'll get into it some other time.

Next, we have Insecure Attachment. There are three main types of this:

The first one I'll explain is Anxious-Ambivalent Attachment. This is what happens when the primary caregivers' responses to their child are unpredictable or inconsistent. Such children do not explore very much, because they are too busy being afraid that their primary caregiver might not be there for them if something weird happens. They are wary of strangers. When the primary caregiver leaves unexpectedly, these children are extremely distressed, only to return to being neutral when the caregiver returns. Inconsistent responses to the baby's needs produces a fear of being abandoned, which manifests as vigilantly focusing on maintaining their connection with their caregiver while the caregiver is present, and terror and anger when the caregiver is absent.

Next, there's Avoidant Attachment. This is what happens when the primary caregiver consistently denies the child of their attention when they need help. Such children do not explore, do not interact with strangers, do not express emotion if the caregiver leaves unexpectedly, and do not express emotion when the caregiver returns. This is a child that has learned that their needs do not matter to their primary caregiver. This child expects to be rejected and ignored. This child wishes for closeness with their caregiver, but knows they will not receive it, and knows that expressing distress about it is a waste of energy, so the safest thing for them to do is to maintain vague proximity to the caregiver so as to avoid the disappointment that comes with knowing that its needs do not matter to them.

Finally, there is Disorganized Attachment. This is what happens when the primary caregiver abuses the child. These children will display a lot of very contradictory and disorganized behaviors (hence the name) in response to the environment, to strangers, and to the primary caregiver. Children such as these are accustomed to being screamed at, shaken, or hit as a result of expressing or having needs, or even just as a result of existing. These are children who have learned that anything they do might provoke their primary caregiver's wrath, and the contradictory behaviors are the result of not knowing what they should do to prevent that wrath. The resulting adult, if left untreated, will swing wildly between being ice cold and anxiously clingy.

I'll give you four guesses as to which of these categories I fit into. Hahaha…

What I learned today in therapy was that some guy whose name I forgot worked with a bunch of severely abused children, and came up with a way to guide them back to having a secure attachment style, despite the horrors they've been through before. It's a system called The 5 Pillars of Attachment. My therapist even gave me a handy-dandy picture to reference:

Felt Safety was explained to me as a culmination of the other four pillars. This is when you understand that you are protected and loved, that someone will have your back if something weird happens. It is the knowledge that the people around you are worthy of being counted on, without them trying to hurt, abandon, or ignore you.

Attunement relates to being understood. This is the part where the other person understands you when you speak, tries to empathize with your emotions and experiences, and makes genuine effort to know you deeply.

Support When Dysregulated relates to not being rejected by the other person when you can't always keep yourself together. It is knowing that someone will try to help you, to soothe you, and to comfort you if you're struggling.

Expressed Delight relates to the other person being genuinely joyful about the fact that you exist, and being willing to express that joy on a regular basis. This joy needs to be about who you are, and not about what you look like or what you can do. It is about the other person expressing delight towards your entire being, not just when you're well-regulated, excelling at something, or being convenient.

Support for Autonomy refers to how much room the other person gives you to explore, to try new things, to pursue your own interests, to succeed, to fail, and to make your own choices. This person should act as a safety net if you fall down.

…You've never been given any of these. And, up until meeting M, neither have I. But I know these things well. I know them because I do whatever I can to give these things to other people - anyone other than myself. The part where I don't give these things to myself is the part that I have to change. I think you know these things well, too; I've seen the way you treated Zack, Genesis, and Angeal. All you have to do is treat yourself with the same tenderness and care with which you treated them in the past.

I will never receive these things from my biological family. It's not because they're bad people, but rather, it's because their life experiences have left them without the necessary skills to provide any of these things for anyone else, without a beliefs system that would allow them to develop these skills, and without a framework that would allow them to change their beliefs. If you believe, for example, that only bad people ever make mistakes, then it becomes really hard to own up to your mistakes, and from there it becomes nearly impossible to change your behaviors in the future.

But I can rebuild my relationship with myself by giving myself the things outlined in these 5 pillars. I can change how I treat myself. I can decide what my new narrative will be when I think about the kind of treatment I deserve to receive from myself.

…You can do this, too. You can change what you believe about yourself. You can change how you view yourself. You can change how you interact with yourself. You can change the way you care for and treat yourself. You can change it! Sephiroth, you're a lot smarter, a lot more capable, and a lot more mentally flexible than I could ever even begin to hope to be! Sephiroth, if I, a derpy autistic chick from a backwater planet in some garden-variety galaxy can do this work, then someone as kind, gentle, intelligent, dedicated, and brave as you can certainly do this work! You can decide, today, right here, and right now, that you are worthy of your own love!

So come on; get to it, willya? We can figure it out together! And if you run into trouble, you can take my outstretched hand, and I'll do whatever I can to help you! We are more than our traumas and mistakes! Sephiroth, you are more than your traumas and mistakes! You are more than the composition of your body! You are more than what you can do! Sephiroth, the most beautiful aspects of who you are have always had their basis in things like the ways you marvel at nature, in the caring and considerate way you treated your friends and the people around you, in your love for other people, which was so strong at one point that you chose to spend years doing what you thought was right in order to protect them, despite the suffering you endured at their very same hands. Sephiroth, you're a beautiful human being on the inside! You deserve so much more and so much better than what you've been giving to yourself! You deserve to feel seen, understood, safe, supported, adored, and free! Like any human being, you deserve to have good and wholesome things! And you can have them! All you have to do is take a single step in a different direction, and then keep doing that until your whole outlook changes!

Please. Please look at me. Look at me, because I am doing this same work. I am doing it every day, no matter how difficult it is, and no matter how much it hurts. Please look at me so you can see that anything is possible. Sephiroth, you are capable of so much more than I am, because I am one of the weaker examples of a human being; you have the capacity to shine so much more brightly than I can. So please look at me as proof that you can do this work, too. Please try. Sephiroth, you can do it! I believe in you!

...And that's all I've got for today. I know it was a lot; thank you for bearing with me.

I love you. Please stay safe. I'll write again tomorrow.

Your friend, Lumine

[withgreatpowercomesmyfuckingdick]

i am just here to talk not very a ask because if i can't say it, i will probably destroy someone house.

i have been thinking what was going on in cloud's head before tifa went in and put him back together ?

Like i think that we all could see how cloud talk about the nibelhiem accident. Even if he was just putting himself in place of zack that is to much. it dosn't fell like the zack from crisis core you know ?

i think that cloud brain creat memories by taking a vag felling of how the things went and use the emotion accociate with it, then fell it what is left of it with the " first class soldier, friend with sephiroth like you know zack ". wich give that hell of a fanfiction. cloud was next to his idol, so he must have quite the happy emotion, and sephiroth acted that way because in the logic of " cloud being zack" it wouldn't make any sense for sephiroth to not act on it even it may have been a little bit exagere by the feeling of that time.

and then there is that wierd felling that it dosn't stick with the rest of any implied memories. you know. i don't know how to explain it, maybe it's final fantasy 7 ( 1997) that is influenced me here. please tell me that i am not the only one who can see a 180° change in atmosphere when it's about that memory ( i know that they did it this way for the lovely fan we are but dang it's destroying my view of cloud. seeing cloud with emotion on his face has actually wierd me out, his the one wtih the stoïque one, you know ? )

plus has anyone ever ask what cloud remember in between the memory of tifa and being a first ?

and why does cloud shoose zack or not tifa or hell sephiroth himself ? plus he seem to remember zack before that little discour of his. what if when zack said to cloud that he would be his legacy, cloud broken mind took it literaly and for the event to have sense ,zack as a person had to go. it's why ex-first claas cloud do not have zack personality :"]

it's probably extremely wrong, i am still stuck with ff7 ( 1997 ) and can't get myself aroud the remake . like at all. stone face cloud, stays my favorite boy .

ooooooh this is a very interesting ask/ramble this might take me a sec to break down.

edit: this was in my drafts for a few days and ended up very lengthy, but I promise I didn’t forget you LOL. I’m going to give a header for each question for ease of reading. Thanks for the ask, and read more should you be interested in the rambles you set off for me 😂

What was going on in Cloud’s head before Tifa helped put him back together?/What’s with the tone change in his memories of Sane!Sephiroth?

The mind is very fascinating. The closest real life experience i’ve been able to relate to Cloud’s situation is friends I’ve had with dissociative identity disorder (DID). the mind on its own is very much capable of twisting events and compartmentalizing them between personalities. Cloud’s case is an extreme case in that 1) there’s a fucking alien involved and 2) the effects were basically amnesiac. He literally couldn’t retrieve the memories by himself because of how well his brain did in compartmentalizing his trauma, which is fucked up, since all it really did was leave him with the effects of his trauma without knowing the cause. So. Yeah lol.

I get what you’re saying with the memory thing and the gap though. The change in atmosphere IS stark.

I think the big thing to remember here is that Cloud’s brain isn’t just casting itself as Zack. He is Zack’s legacy, what Cloud interprets as being what Zack represents. Seeing as Cloud sees Zack through some rose-colored glasses for sure, there’s plenty of room for error. And who of us doesn’t look at our friends and think, “Everyone should love you like I love you”? Like you said, part of it could certainly be Cloud’s personal of bias of “how the fuck could someone not like Zack?” and it skews the memory.

However, I have a theory I personally prefer: The addition of Jenova cells in the equation. The lines between minds affected by Jenova cells is evidently thin, there’s no reason why it wouldn’t be even thinner between Zack and Cloud considering their trust in each other and everything they’ve been through. Couple that with Zack constantly telling Cloud past stories and you have falsely constructed memories all over Cloud’s brain. Maybe Cloud heard those stories and the ‘memories’ we see are his brain taking creative liberty. Like you said, taking what he knows and just filling things in based on how he assumes they would act. Maybe those are actually Zack’s memories, somewhat transferred due to their joint prolonged exposure to J-cells and each other, glorified a bit thanks to Zack trying to filter the stories for his paralyzed friend. We probably won’t get the full scope until Rebirth, but I’m pretty sure we’ll find out.

What does Cloud remember in between the memory of Tifa and being a First?

I’d say very little if any at all. There’s evidence in Rebirth that he hadn’t even remembered their promise on the water tower, a very important motive behind his wanting to become a SOLDIER in the first place, until she’d mentioned it. In fact, I’d say his memory of her is pretty much gone, and looking at it from the “I’m Zack” standpoint it makes sense.

Everything in Nibelheim is attached to a very heavy feeling of shame for Cloud. He wouldn’t even take his helmet off going back because he was so ashamed about talking shit he couldn’t back up. Tifa is the main person he feels he let down by not getting into SOLDIER. Reread that: Tifa is the main person he feels he let down by not getting into SOLDIER. The very existence of her memory is a threat to his alternate personality as a First SOLDIER. That shame and his fabrication can’t coexist, so it makes sense to me that Cloud’s brain pretty much eliminated Tifa before he sees her again.

There’s also evidence he doesn’t remember his time at Shinra at all aside from his ‘Zack’ memories. I don’t remember if it was in the OG, but the Remake makes it very pointed when Cloud runs into a soldier that recognizes him and he has no idea who they are. So this alternate personality thing pretty much erased his life aside from very basic knowledge, from my understanding.

(Which is why playing with his character is so fun for me because, technically, for all of FF7, Cloud is OOC. Crisis Core Cloud is the more accurate rendition of him. Smacking them together into one guy is the closest to Cloud’s true post-trauma personality we get. But that’s a rant for another day.)

Why did Cloud choose Zack and not Tifa/Sephiroth/someone else?

First off I’d like to say, and I think people forget this: Cloud thought he was the only survivor of Nibelheim for years. Cloud thought he was the only survivor of a genocide. That shit is heavy. And who was there after all of it plus all the bullshit with Hojo? Zack.

Sephiroth was his hero, but he turned to a villain. Tifa was his goal, but as far as he knows, she’s too dead to care what he does now. But Zack was Cloud’s friend, and that never changed. Zack was everything he had left.

And here’s another thought: I said earlier that Jenova cells in the both of them probably excaberated Cloud’s mental break. Cloud’s brain probably didn’t consciously decide “Oh, I’ll be Zack now.” What it did was replace his trauma with the safest option. If the majority of his trauma and grief is tied to Zack then, boom, we take Zack out of the picture. It was probably even convenient, since his memories of being paralyzed and experimented on are also inextricably tied to Zack. So naturally, they have to pack it up too. Zack is the one that got wiped out of Cloud’s memory because losing him is apparently where Cloud’s brain drew the line for trauma capacity. Even though Cloud went through a shitton with Sephiroth and Hojo, it was ultimately Zack’s death that pushed him over the edge. Out of everything that happened, Zack dying is what his brain decided Cloud couldn’t handle. Zack’s request for Cloud to be his legacy, as sweet as it is, probably didn’t help.

(Clawing at my hair because Zack, you could’ve said literally anything else. I know it’s symbolic in his approval of Cloud and his trust in his friend etc etc but couldn’t you have said something with LESS emotional and psychological damage? Goddamnit, Zack.)

Naturally, logical vacancies are left. Who’s the First SOLDIER that helps Nibelheim? Hm, must be Cloud. But if he helped Nibelheim, then who discovered Sephiroth in the Manor? Must be Cloud. If he talked to Sephiroth in the Manor, then he must’ve known Sephiroth, and how does one know Sephiroth? You should be a First SOLDIER. In Cloud’s head it comes full circle because there’s a SUBSTANTIAL gap that used to be filled with Zack. We could say that either 1) J-cells made his memory fucky and having some of Zack’s memories in his head accelerated his faulty logic or 2) the memories we ‘see’ aren’t even real and are just wallpapers Cloud’s brain hung over the holes in his memory.

Enjoyed breaking this down, but overall you’re very correct! And I mean, it’s fair to favor the original over the Remake! I think we all subconsciously default to the 1997 canon, because I certainly do. I’m literally using the 1997 canon and just nabbing little details from the Remake because I like the world building and the NPCs and the new visuals we have for battle and magic and what not. Thank you so so much for this ask and I’m sorry if my text wall was a little much in reply 😂