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Nephilim with a shotgun

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[Son of a Gun - KMFDM]

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A gift for @ladykf-writes for this year's @ff7central Fanworks Exchange!

I'm with Zack, I don't know how people do eye make-up.

[Image Description: Digital artwork of Sephiroth and Zack applying eyeliner in front of a mirror. Both are partly in uniform, sans armor or gloves. Sephiroth is looking aside at Zack, saying something calmly, while Zack has his face scrunched up, tongue poking out. /end ID]

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I wanna use Zack Fair's arms like a fucking chew toy and leave marks all over them that he would not even attempt to cover up

That's all thanks for listening to my TED Talk

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ff7 au where shinra's human experimentation turns zack into a werewolf. aka i just wanted to draw him mid-transformation

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Self-insert fanfiction?

And this is coming from a Zack fan, hurry to see. In general, the entire section with Loveless was like a fanfic, from the production itself, where the characters for some reason know the lines and the script, to the virtual ghosts of the Avalanche trio. But you were picking on Aerith. Her performance doesn't stand out against the background of this shit. Hey do you know who named Seventh heaven?

Ok, so lets talk about Zack, Aerith, and fan-fiction writing. I can see viewing Zack as a fan-fiction character (in remake at least), that having been said, there are a BUNCH of nuances here that have to be taken into account. Yes, the game can have some fan-fiction energy, and that's a big part of my complaints surrounding the game in general (see: The white washing of Cid), but lets talk about proportion and function.

1: Zack the self-insert:

First things first.....Zack literally IS a self-insert character.....for Cloud. That is his entire point in universe. Zack in a way represents everything that Cloud wanted to be, the thing he felt he aught to be. Zack therefore being a "Himmel"esque squeaky clean amazing hero isn't a failure of character writing, it's a defining characteristic that contrasts him to Cloud, and that is admissible BECAUSE the core of the overarching story ultimately revolves around Cloud. Zacks moral goodness has a storytelling function beyond just making him the center of the universe that is not applicable to things like Aerith for some reason being a childhood art-prodigy.

2: The world doesn't revolve around Zack

While Zack might be a great guy that "Gary-stu" aspect ends with him. Zack is great, but the universe doesn't bend to accommodate it. Other characters still give him crap, he still has to fight every step of the way for everything he earns. At no point does he simply walk into a broadway musical only to be asked to perform the masterpiece he just threw together in his spare time. In fact one of the motifs of CC is how Zacks naive optimism is challenged and tested by the constant harsh realities of the world and how that changes and matures him. The test being whether he can learn the lessons those events are teaching, so he can weather the storms of life and grow as a person while still keeping his hopes and dreams intact, while still remaining true to himself.

3: Zack's "forced" Importance:

Concerning Zack being tied into a lot of stuff from the OG, like Seventh heavens name, Aeriths ribbon, why she wears pink, etc, there are again some differences here. CC is Zacks game, FFVII remake is not Aeriths game, if you say it is then we've u-turned right back into Aeriths remake portrayal being too fan-fictiony.

Since CC was Zacks game from the start him being the central figure there makes sense, as does showing that importance. And because it still ties into FFVII, and because showing Zacks importance to the story and cast of FFVII was crucial to the intended experience, they wanted to invent ways to make Zack matter that actually tied into the OG rather than just having it be all new stuff. Lets say Zack gave Aerith something that we've never seen before, that would kinda be underwhelming don't you think? They want to show that Zack impacted the cast, so by definition he has to be tied into stuff that we already knew meant something to them, and ultimately that will almost always feel forced. Rather than inspire seventh heaven Zack could have given Tifa her gloves, would that be better? No, you'd get the same complaints. So what's the alternative? Just having a game about Zack where you discover....he meant nothing really, kinda impacted noone....? You can argue it was clumsily done, and it's an unfortunately hard to avoid problem when dealing with sequels and prequels, but there are reasons for these reveals besides just making Zack super important just because "Zack is cool and I want the game to revolve around him!". Ultimately Zack’s centrality stems from structural necessity, CC is his story, whereas Aerith’s growing centrality feels more like a byproduct of audience nostalgia being mistaken for narrative priority.

4: Zack the failure:

Zack fails....like, a lot. A Maru-sue or a Gary-stu isn't just about being an unreastically morally perfect person, there are a bunch more potential points on this checklist, and ultimately will always have to be argued on a case by case basis. Other things that hallmark this type of character would be that they always succeed, or worse, that the universe itself bends in unrealistic ways to make them succeed. But Zack fails to save Angeal, and Sephiroth, and Genesis, everything he does seems to go wrong. "fate's got one twisted sense of humor, and I'm always the punchline". Zack is absolutely annoying at the start of CC. He doesn't start off a hero, he grows into one. While Aerith starts off in remake as a mysterious magical quest giver Zack starts as an overly enthusiastic puppy. His sub-sequent rise towards being a hero is shielded from ever becoming too idealistic because of how it will inevitably end, him dying in combat for his ideals, with Cloud ultimately being the one who saves the planet. Whether that is undermined by remake is a different argument. But in terms of his role within CC, his own game, his characterization is completely earned

5: Concerning Aerith:

But what about Aerith? Aerith seemingly has the entire universe bending just to make sure she doesn't die. Now do I think she's actually alive? No. Do the same potential writing choices also imply Zack surviving? Yes. But here we get to that annoying nuance again. Does the answer to Aeriths survival really change the way the first two games are written in terms of Aeriths "fan-fiction" portrayal? I argue no. Aerith still being dead doesn't change the fact that these two games had an overblown focus on dangling the carrot of Aeriths potential survival over the heads of the player, overshadowing the plot of the actual game.

Why is the focus on "stopping destiny" rather than "stopping Meteor"? Now we can argue until the cows come home what stopping destiny will actually turn out to mean in the end, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a bait and switch where, in the moment, the developers are milking Aeriths fate as the primary emotional hook.

6: Loveless:

Was the entire Loveless part fan-fictiony? Yep, but these scenes are not all made equal. For one the loveless play takes place inside VR, the implication being that EVERYONE saw themselves in the play in some way, but only Aerith got to be the person everyone sees singing. Not only that but she was called over the speaker DURING the performance, despite them having no prior indication of her musical talents. Then there is the play itself, should we compare the performances? The others all act like believable first time actors, Cloud is wooden and awkward, Yuffie is childish and giggly, Tifa is overearnest. But when Aerith sings it is directed as though she's been on stage a thousand times, and as stated before, literally no one gets their own additional part except for Aerith. Now, that was the only example of Aerith being portrayed as such we wouldn't have much of an issue, but it's not, almost every scene with her feels like it had to be made forcefully poignant, from the moment we meet her we get tear filled flash-forwards of her tragic death. If all this importance felt like the logical result of what came before in the story this wouldn't be an issue. But it's not, Aeriths scenes are very back-loaded, she has a lot of scenes surrounding her final chapters, as we'd expect, but not that many beforehand. Even counting remake this level of dramatization isn't really earned, it FEELS like the sort of dramatic scenes and send-offs we'd give someone after 30 years of games. But thats not the case for the people in universe, this is a REMAKE, and the game is supposed to stand on its own. It feels as though the remake is trying to leverage the emotional build-up the audience already had for Aerith prior to the remake rather than what was earned through the remake itself. For me, as someone who believes the remake should be able to stand on its own, that's self-indulgent. Which leads to the biggest sin of all:

The milking of Aeriths death

This death that was originally designed to be "not hollywood", to happen quickly and suddenly and leave nothing but emptiness, has now become perhaps the most Hollywoodized death in modern JRPGs. And because she's ultimately still just one person of many to die in the games, and because we have to view the remake as potentially its own product, rather than assuming the player has 30 years of missing Aerith under their belt, this dramatization of Aeriths death over everything else that's going on is inherently unearned. And while you can pretend the same goes for Zack in your heart of hearts you have to admit that Zacks potential survival seemed more about potentially saving Aerith than about Zack himself. Hell, if Cleriths are to be believed the point of Zacks return is just to give Cloud and Aerith his blessing and Fuck off. Which in itself says a lot about the fan-fictiony nature of Clerith in general. But yeah, if you want to complain about Zacks inclusion in Rebirth, I have no issues with that either, I don't like how it was done, and I would gladly sacrifice Zacks scenes if it meant also getting rid of Aeriths plot ghost related changes.

Ultimately, both Zack and Aerith have stories that at times risk tipping into self-indulgence, but the difference lies in the execution. Zacks portrayal, while at times a bit forced, fits into a story about growth, impact, and legacy. Aerith, meanwhile, is treated more like an icon than a person, and in a story where life, mortality, and humanity, are central themes, that iconography undermines the human stakes.

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New Zack wallpaper (Ever Crisis) 💙

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I like him a normal amount

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ℤ𝕒𝕔𝕜 𝔽𝕒𝕚𝕣

𝔽𝕚𝕟𝕒𝕝 𝔽𝕒𝕟𝕥𝕒𝕤𝕪 𝕍𝕀𝕀 𝔸𝕕𝕧𝕖𝕟𝕥 ℂ𝕙𝕚𝕝𝕕𝕣𝕖𝕟

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I turned Elden Ring characters into HnK gemstones

Malenia - Realgar (hardness 2) surrounded with arsenic clouds and with gold being her prosthesis for the arm and both legs, also shattered parts where eyes should have been and left arm and hand

Ranni (the original design made by @/faneposting-my-beloved where Ranni has red hair, I only turned her into a gem) - Rubellite (7.5 hardness) she was supposed to be a Ruby at first, but I made Radagon a Tourmaline so I thought I'd make her a Tourmaline too! (Rubellite is basically a tourmaline but a red variant)

Miquella - Champagne Pearl (hardness 3)

Nepheli - Onyx (6.5 hardness)

Sorry for the bad lightning. It's late

Miquella was the most tiring to draw...

I know they're messy but they are just sketches for a bigger project

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Angeal in pink apron :D

I kinda also like the even more “naked” ver, so here it is below!

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i miss you

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Would it kill square enix to give us chubbier Aerith