#angeal doesn't seem to have been deployed AT ALL until then

[getvalentined]

I was gushing about Genesis' design the other day and decided to transplant the whole rant over here because I love how Genesis' whole design makes no pretense about him doing things specifically to make himself look taller, but also more delicate—because he has an aesthetic that he's determined to maintain, but it's a ruse. The whole thing is a ruse. Genesis knows what he looks like, particularly what he looks like compared to the people around him, and he works with it in such a fantastic way it makes me feral.

It's so obvious from an artistic and fashion design perspective that he's trying to give himself a more masculine shape while also trying to look unintimidating in that shape, like he's petite when he's absolutely not—which makes perfect sense when paired with the fact that he's a mage and when he uses a sword it's in very close-quarters combat compared to his peers.

Genesis is trying to look like the least intimidating of the Firsts because it means opponents are more likely to underestimate him and let him get too close, only to realize that he's like 6'3" and can throw a freight truck.

Take the cut of his coat, the way he wears his belt a little low—like he's trying to look taller, but also like he wants you to think that his legs maybe aren't quite that long, like his waist is wider than it is, but his shoulders are narrower. Like his frame is more average, like he lacks the physical capacity to do too much damage compared to his similarly ranked colleagues.

His clothing makes him look less svelte; he doesn't want people to catch that he can be on you in four steps because he's long-legged and limber as fuck. His pauldrons are set low on his jacket, as if he wants them to look slightly too big. Genesis' shoulders and chest are actually pretty broad for his frame, his legs and arms are long and well toned, but he dresses and carries himself in a way that makes it difficult to tell unless you're really looking.

Most opponents won't parse Genesis' build correctly, they won't realize that he's got some beastly upper body strength until he's on them far too quickly and he's grabbed them by the face—and since when were his arms so long?—and flung them across the battlefield.

At a distance, or alongside Sephiroth or Angeal, Genesis doesn't just look delicate, he looks fragile. He looks like you can snap him in half. On his own, though, up close? You're fucked.