#to sephiroth he doesnt even know her real name. to vincent he wants to save her. to hojo she was for an experiment

[feralshadowdemon]

lucrecia crescent is a fascinating character. something i find fond of her is the fact that while she felt guilty it didn't take away from the fact she still conducted and worked in horrible experiments. she convinced herself she was better than hojo when both he and her never quite had the right morals for being a scientist, even if she was better than he was on that side of things. we only see her primarily through other characters' eyes, most of whom are unreliable narrators on what truly went through her head during her time as a scientist and as sephiroth's mother. she is a mystery. like how she was to sephiroth. she was a mystery to everyone. even to herself

[zackfiar-a]

zack fair UR HAND PLEASE?? 

it took me a bit to realize that zack had a lot of influence in ff7 indirectly (but for this instance ill be talking about the remake because i can barely remember playing the og when i was like 7) a lot of these deal w aerith but U Know + among other things that i rant about

like, helping some random dude name 7th heaven in exchange for the wood thats needed to build aeriths flower wagon, aerith wearing pink after a certain point because she promised zack to wear it every time they saw each other even tho it was ‘silly’ (also buying aeriths bow but that seems null and void in the remake), aeriths ‘just one date’, even tho sephiroth was already on the tipping point zack helped edge him just a little off the deep end asking him about ‘we’re average soldiers but what about u?’ and asking about sephiroths family (altho genesis helped him keep that curiosity), in the remake if u chose ‘how much?’ for the option when aerith offers u the flower for helping her she gets a bit aggressive than going for a measly 2 girl for a real flower (something zack told her, dont just settle for less u need to be more aggressive; assert urself), and even zacks suggestion for selling the flowers in the first place which is how aerith and cloud even met in the first place, and even mentioning kunsel in the remake (someone no one talks about because he doesnt have a face under the mask and hes literally Never mentioned again outside of crisis core) when those infantryman see cloud in the shinra building, hojo recognizing cloud as his runaway specimen (cloud: im an (ex) soldier 1st class, hojo: lol no ur not, cloud: pikachu meme), “ur eyes!!”

im sure theres more because i remember a lot of things connecting to zack but i cant think of them atm rip but this boy has endured a lot of trauma that i didnt rly connect to? it was like a domino effect 

first, being pushed a bunch of missions on from sephiroth because he refused to deal w those that had angeal or genesis thus leaving zack to do his dirty work, then slaying ur mentor and close friend by ur hand thus inheriting the buster sword (which starts to conflict his beliefs, soldier honor and dreams, that has been ingrained in him since he joined or was under angeals wing haha get it?), being held out to dry because of the disappearance of lazard thus being attacked by genesis copies when he thought he killed him), which goes back to encountering angeal copies when ur like ??? thought i killed him so hes rly alive?, THEN confronting sephiroth that has convinced himself that he is the true ruler of the planet and getting fucked up in the process, now him and cloud are getting experimented on (i can only imagine what has happened seeing as zack wasnt directly affected by the jenova / s cells that was implanted into him (lots of needles, electricity, and incisions if anything assuming by hojos surgery room in the remake), angeals image appearing his mind and waking him up to save cloud who has a mako addiction and poisoning from the failed experimentation and being in a pod for 4 years, BACK to killing genesis and only to meet ur end after u promised the girl u loved that u would see her again and inheriting ur hopes and dreams on that boy u saved

hes naive, headstrong, impatient, wants to do everything to prove himself, friendly, determined, loyal, emotional af, stubborn, sucks at intaking information, sentimental, and has such a pure soul 

after angeals death he practically changed his image to be more ‘mature’ and gave such a heartfelt speech that affected more than just cloud and inspired many ppl to live out their dreams too (luxaerie if ur out there), and the bonds hes formed with ppl ie cissnei and tseng (i dont count reno or rude since he only encounters them when hes on missions w either tseng or ciss), aerith and cloud, and sephiroth too; which they never rly explained why zack joined soldier in the first place (to become a hero sure) but i assume since clouds intentions to join in the first place was because of the war hero sephiroth that zacks was similar considering how genuinely excited he was that he was going to be going on a mission with sephiroth!! whoa!!! only to lose that infatuation over time

might i say that he indirectly met vincent? what a guy, nice to see someone unironically sleep in a coffin thats a nice conversation starter

in the end he went from being a proud member of soldier to an ex-soldier because no one saw zack as that humble and inspiring guy instead to just a runaway failed experiment with implanted jenova / s cells that dont Rly Work rip to cloud but hes different, and wanting to become a mercenary?? King