#weekofsilverwinds

[fury-brand]

Friends, Sephiroth fans, countrymen:

This meta post was sparked by Sephiroth Week's day 1 prompt, "Innocence," but it's been a long time coming and a long time sorely needed. In it, I beseech you to reconsider a character you may not have given much thought to that we might join hands in the light of the Truth:

Professor Gast is a fucking asshole.

I know, we know so little of him and it's very tempting to trust Sephiroth's high regard for the man. But! If we operate from the assumption that Sephiroth is around 30 in the game and 25 in Nibelheim (and I believe crisis core suggests 28), then accounting for the time Ifalna's pregnancy would take we can conclude that his last contact with this man was at the age of 7. Even if Sephiroth were a reasonably good judge of character (and let's face it, the man struggles to accept hard truths), that's a very young age to form an opinion of someone with an extremely redacted amount of information.

Listen. We all know Hojo is an asshole, and some of us even like him for it. But why should Gast get off with the blessing of his foremost victim just because he demonstrates slightly more restraint in his mad science practice? He DID lead the Jenova project after all. For as much as Hojo is inclined to inject her cells into people willy-nilly, it was Gast's idea in the first place!

And sure, he may not have been involved in quite as torrid a love affair as his coworkers, but do you really think his relationship with Ifalna wasn't questionably ethical? She began as his subject, after all, and though we have no idea how they met we do know that Shinra eventually learned enough about them to track them down. They may well have met through the labs before Gast had a sudden attack of conscience - which, by the way? Also led him to abandoning the genetically engineered 7 year old that was at least partially in his care. If he was in hiding or aiming to protect Ifalma, he certainly wasn't looking out for ALL his subjects, is all I'm saying.

All of this is to say that Professor Gast is at best a shortsighted, irresponsible and incredibly selfish man and at worst a cruel and callous one who does all of the mad scientist with none of the verve of presentation. Though his relationship with Sephiroth is touching and wrenching for it's tragedy, please take this opportunity to amend your perhaps too generous opinion. Write it into your fics and into your hearts: Gast was never, ever innocent.

[shramir]

Sephiroth Week 2019 || Day 02 - Wish

“I wish I knew her; I wish I knew what I am”

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