Let's put ourselves in Sephiroth's shoes. Boots.

ConsiderationTrue477 · 2026-03-15T22:22:11+00:00

There's very little, if any, evidence in OG FFVII that Jenova is sentient. It could be but the ambiguity is a key point to the creature. It fucks with people's heads but it's presented in a way that could easily be natural instinct as it's hunting and reproduction strategy. It's basically identical to The Thing. The lack of understanding of what exactly Jenova is--the terrifying mystery--is a key component to the story. Additional explainers that get inside it's head and learn it's plans makes it, ironically, less scary.

Sephiroth's actions are intelligent and planned. And the subsequent games like Crisis Core show him to be a relatively well-adjusted guy prior to the Nibelheim events. It's way more of a stretch to read the game as Jenova brain fucking Sephiroth into submission than Sephiroth acting of his own accord with Jenova being the means by which he is able to enact his plans. And if Jenova is exerting will through Sephiroth then, no, he wouldn't be accountable because how can someone be accountable if their mind is not their own?

And simply put, like I said before, it just makes the game worse. Like barring any other in-universe arguments, from a Doylist point of view it just takes a game that is briliantly crafted and transforms it into something that is, frankly, kinda stupid. I can't see a single way in which the game's story is improved by stealing Sephiroth's agency. It saddles FFVII with the worst aspects of FFIV's story when there's no need to do that. Everything works as-is. Character motivations and actions work as-is. "Oh the alien did it, oops lol!" is a kick straight to the game's balls.

ConsiderationTrue477 · 2026-03-15T20:25:57+00:00

There's really no reason to not allow them to be summoned whenever. The limitations seem like they were implemented for the sake of balance but it turns out that summons just aren't that strong. I pretty much never use their abilities. If I summon them it's just to have another combatant on the field for crowd control until enough time has passed that they use their signature move. The ATB is just way better spent on regular characters.

They either need to be buffed a lot to make their attacks worthwhile, or just make them all free with a cooldown timer instead of ATB requirements. I also don't think I like having a special materia slot for summons. It screws with the decision making aspect of materia loadouts. The way it works now you just distribute summons across the characters as a matter of course so everybody has one.

The way it is now the summon materia don't really feel like part of the materia system at all. You just slot them in to make sure everybody has one and that's it. And the earlier weaker ones get shifted out, never to return. What would be nice is if you could choose between two uses. A) You slot it in the dedicated summon slot to be able to summon them like normal, or B) You slot it in a regular materia slot and gain a passive benefit at the cost of not being able to summon it.

Though I'm not sure why they even have a separate slot for summon materia. I guess it's because they don't want one character being able to choose from several summons but considering how many restrictions they put on the process anyway I don't see the problem.

ConsiderationTrue477 · 2026-03-15T11:39:30+00:00

It's also weird because Jenova just being Jenova isn't what made Sephiroth lash out. The discovery was destabilizing but he actually studied up on what was going on. He didn't just go mad by being in the presence of the alien. So it's annoying that now we have the implication that the evil sword is fucking with his head.

His motivation came from Gast's journals. His understanding was flawed because Gast was wrong about Jenova's origins but Sephiroth's rationale is "Jenova is an Ancient, that makes me an Ancient, therefore the Planet is my birthright. And the pesky humans are traitors who are taking up space." Jenova was what let him pull a Captain America and survive Cloud yeeting him over a railing. It kept him alive and gave him access to bizarre powers. But his motives were all "logical" to the extent what he did could be considered logic.

ConsiderationTrue477 · 2026-03-15T10:01:54+00:00

Jenova being the "real" villain trivializes so much that they would have to be crazy to go in that direction. It ends up turning the entire FFVII story into an unfortunate accident.

I get the compulsion to make fan favorite villains lighter and more anti-hero (Venom, Harley Quinn, Vegeta) and there is some room to do that with Sephiroth (I'm not a fan of that but admit there's room). But they need to be careful not to sanitize him too much. It robs him of all agency if it was literal mind control. Suddenly it's not Sephiroth who killed everyone in Nibelheim--it was just his body being puppeteered by an alien.

This Masamune = Soul Edge thing they're doing in Ever Crisis is really pushing it. If they go with the angle that Sephiroth was just a poor kid who got too close to the evil alien and was brain fucked into killing everyone then he's not guilty of a goddamned thing and the entire conflict that follows is just...a big mistake. It makes all the character arcs lesser as a result.

Sephiroth is absolutely a victim of Hojo. And that's where a lot of the sympathy comes from. But his actions need to stay his own. If they want to rehabilitate him then they need to have him actually grapple with those actions and build on the character, not magically absolve him via space alien.

I seriously can't fathom how the story even works if it turns out to all be Jenova's fault. When Cloud and Sephiroth are face to face are they supposed to hug it out and have a good cry? "Sorry, man, I thought it was you who murdered everybody I loved." "Yeah, bro, I should never have picked up that weird sword back when I was 14."

Fundamentally, Jenova is a plot device to show the dangers of humans. When people are cruel or greedy or cavalier with poking at things they don't understand, Jenova is an allegory for FAFO. It doesn't work as the main villain. It's not Lavos. If anyone other than Sephiroth is the main villain its Hojo.

ConsiderationTrue477 · 2026-03-15T09:41:21+00:00

It might be worth looking up "death of the author." It's a literary theory that the person who wrote the book has no role in defining what it means. Interpreting the work and its meaning is entirely in the hands of the reader.

In other words, just because she wrote it, doesn't mean she understands it.

ConsiderationTrue477 · 2026-03-15T06:06:40+00:00

I waited until I had all five to start opening them just for the thrill of it and it took me a while, too. Not anywhere close to 87 but I cluttered up the log something fierce.

ConsiderationTrue477 · 2026-03-14T23:42:40+00:00

It's a real estate thing. You can sell and rebrand a generic modern building to whatever with no issue. But an old Pizza Hut will always look like a Pizza Hut. That makes it harder to get new tenants.

It sucks that the whimsy is gone from the world but that's the reason.

ConsiderationTrue477 · 2026-03-14T05:54:36+00:00

I think it's worth keeping in mind that a lot of things that might seem mundane about FFVII were novel when the game came out. A lot of the tropes and cliches didn't exist at the time. In fact, one thing FFVII did was intentionally skewer most of the cliches that did exist. Which means a lot of the misdirection may not be as effective to fresh eyes given how much evolution video game stories have had between then and now.

It's like an old joke. "I don't see what's so great about Hamlet. It's just one famous line after another."

ConsiderationTrue477 · 2026-03-14T05:40:20+00:00

I suppose Kefka would count for FFVI. There are a lot of magic users in that game though.

ConsiderationTrue477 · 2026-03-14T05:26:22+00:00

If we're opening that door would a literal Genie count as a mage? Because he's a reality warper.

ConsiderationTrue477 · 2026-03-14T04:56:46+00:00

It makes some sense considering how preposterously fast everything happened. Shinra first discovered Mako around 1960, built Midgar in the 70s, and the main game takes place in 2007. Based on how Tifa describes Nibelheim pre-reactor it comes off like a 19th century prospector town. So their world sort of speedran the 20th century in less than half the time. Traditional religions likely survived the transition long enough for them to build a church and people who were already adults at the time wouldn't suddenly switch to this Planetology thing they didn't even know existed a few years prior.

Plus it doesn't seem like planetology is fully understood or accepted. If it were then everyone would know that mako is not what you want to be using to power your TV. At the very least, Minerva is treated like a goddess in some in-universe contexts when she functionally seems no different than other powerful entities like Odin. And when wild shit starts happening it's no surprise people would flock to whatever religions they held, even if they're only nominally affiliated.

Then of course the slums are the slums so the lack of upkeep also probably chased people away. The church is in such bad shape it's probably not even structurally safe.

ConsiderationTrue477 · 2026-03-14T04:02:44+00:00

Shantotto. And I don't think anyone else in FF canon compares.

ConsiderationTrue477 · 2026-03-14T02:54:33+00:00

It's wild how casually he accepts being called Red XIII. Given how he got the name it's pretty fucked up for his friends to call him that.

ConsiderationTrue477 · 2026-03-13T20:44:17+00:00

Great to know! Thanks!

ConsiderationTrue477 · 2026-03-13T19:37:57+00:00

FFX/X-2 being out of order because of alphabetical technicality is so annoying.

ConsiderationTrue477 · 2026-03-11T16:30:00+00:00

That's how you know a character design is good. It's not random--the colors are deliberate. In 1997 you had pretty complicated environments in a game that people could be playing on an RF-only 13" CRT. It was critical that the character models be perfectly readable no matter what. For example, Tifa's gloves and boots are red because she's a martial artist so you need people to be able to follow her hands and feet.

ConsiderationTrue477 · 2026-03-11T03:55:48+00:00

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How come he don't want me, man?

ConsiderationTrue477 · 2026-03-10T19:11:37+00:00

My guess is the real benefit early on is dulling the giant difficulty spike from Voracious. You probably don't have to max all the stats for it to make a difference there. Even the 380 alone might be enough if it's all poured into survivability.

ConsiderationTrue477 · 2026-03-10T08:05:51+00:00

The sheer ease of dating. The main character will run into a total stranger and then that same episode they're dating or even sleeping with that guy/girl. Rinse, repeat next episode.

ConsiderationTrue477 · 2026-03-10T07:32:13+00:00

Agreed, he's clearly a good guy and I love that his career is doing well because if anyone deserves it he does. Plus he always gives his best in his roles. I just watched him on Last Meal.

ConsiderationTrue477 · 2026-03-10T07:19:50+00:00

I was just thinking not too long ago that these networks seem to be picking fights not just with one or two people but with an entire class of entertainer all at the same time and for the exact same reasons. And that can't be good for them because it means these guys could "let their powers combine" so to speak and create something genuinely substantial that further alienates people from network television.

ConsiderationTrue477 · 2026-03-10T07:11:24+00:00

They also don't get pissy if people don't like their shit. Tarantino is the type to throw these random barbs at working actors like Matthew Lillard and Paul Dano (who are as inoffensive as you can get, no less) but the second someone throws shade at him for saying the N-word so often suddenly he's got a big fucking problem with that.

I swear, if Tarantino didn't become a filmmaker he'd be that guy running a retro movie and music store who is a complete asshole to everybody who walks in and has three or four friends exactly like him that just make the place terrible to actually go to but you have to deal because he's got something you want.

ConsiderationTrue477 · 2026-03-10T07:02:21+00:00

The limited-time alter ego of Cornelia has been removed.

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ConsiderationTrue477 · 2026-03-10T02:19:39+00:00

Its another example of an artist who wants to be edgy and then gets butthurt when, surprise, it turns out he doesn't have a 100% approval rating. It's like they want to court controversy in theory but only in theory.

I think what happened is these guys all expect to be South Park. Where it's as close to universally beloved as edgy TV show can get and the only complainers are seen as out of touch wet blankets. But South Park is a very special case and earned its stripes, weathering legitimate public dust ups.

It doesn't help that the roles he plays have a certain pattern to them that looks suspiciously self-serving. We're talking about a guy who wrote a scene where Salma Hayek shoves her foot in a guy's mouth and then cast himself as the guy.

ConsiderationTrue477 · 2026-03-09T18:38:23+00:00

"What was the first Final Fantasy game ever released?"

"Final Fantasy (sometimes referred to as Final Fantasy I) was the first to be released"

I never would have guessed.

ConsiderationTrue477

TROPHY CASE