CUTE FS WALLPAPER FOR THE SCHOOL EVENT WITH THE BABIES AJDHDSJ

We'll meet again...

“Tifa said to take you home, kid.”

Is Sonon really dead?

Yuffie’s mission in Midgar ended unsuccessfully. Shinra destroyed the base of her allies in Sector 7, she couldn’t get hold of the Ultimate Materia and, most importantly, Sonon died in order to save her.

His death gives a sense of closure to this newly introduced character. Although being quite short, the DLC is full of clever parallels between Yuffie and Melphie, Sonon's younger sister who got killed in front of his eyes during the Wutai war. He failed to save Melphie back then, but he can save Yuffie now.

But the big question is: is Sonon really dead?

The OST playing during the death scene is Seeing Melphie again. After getting stabbed, he has a vision of his little sister (a very touching moment tied to FFVII theme of reunion in the afterlife) accompanied by a bitterweet piano melody, that gets always softer until his last breath. But just when Nero seems to finish Sonon off, instead of mercilessly swallowing him into the darkness, he gently picks him up while the music digresses in an ominious and mysterious tone, hinting that his role may be not over yet.

But what could Nero want from Sonon?

I think the answer may be deduced diggin a bit into Dirge of Cerberus lore.

There's a not very well known entry related to the main DoC game (especially by the western audience since it had been released only in Japan and for a very short period of time): Dirge of Cerberus Multiplayer on-line. While some of the missions were later included in the international release of DoC, the plot of this game got lost despite its importance for the full understanding of the Deepground dynamics.

Here is a link for an excellent article from thelifestream.net that tries to keep a record of this expired entry, and here's a playlist of cutscenes from the game with English subtitles that helps understanding the main plot (btw, a great YT channel where you can also find localized playthroughs of rarities like DoC Lost Episode and Before Crisis).

A quick summary about Deepground and the Multiplayer game.

Deepground is a top secret facility created by President Shinra and located beneath the slums (remember that underground lab where Cloud, Barret and Tifa went to save Wedge? That's Deepground) where troopers and SOLDIERs - but also unaware civilians - endure severe experimentations that push their bodies and minds to the limit, aiming to create ruthless SOLDIERs with no moral boundaries. The elite DG SOLDIERs are known as Tsviets, like Weiss, Nero, Argento, Shelke, Rosso and Azul. To avoid any rebellion each candidate and Tsviet has a restriction chip implanted in their brain controlled by four Restrictors loyal to President Shinra. This mechanism is particoularly useful to control those Tsviets who don't make a distinction between allies and enemies.

Because of this the Tsviets started to secretly plot against Shinra until they finally understood how to cheat the system. Shelke and Argento found a way to implant a non-working chip in a candidate, so that they could kill the Restrictors. The protagonist of DoC Multiplayer is indeed this candidate (gender and name chosen by the player). Thanks to her special abilities Shelke tricked the candidate into seeing a supporting partner, Usher, who helped them into ranking as a Tsviet, and most importantly she instilled the hatred towards the Restrictors giving to the candidate false memories of a little sister brutally killed by one of them. In the end the candidate managed to kill one of the Restrictors but got stabbed as well. This is the final dialogue of the game:

Weiss: Can this one still be of any use?

Shelke: Negative. The prolonged SND [Synaptic Net Dive] has rendered most of the brain inaccessible. It's only a matter of time before it breaks down completely.

Rosso: Really? After all that hard work. What a shame.

Weiss: Then hurry up and find a suitable replacement. After all no one knows what the Restrictors really look like.

Azul: So we have to find another one? This is becoming frustrating.

Weiss: It can't be helped. Only one out of hundreds can make it this far.

Rosso: Ordinary humans simply aren't as strong as we are.

Weiss: Precisely.

Shelke: Well, it's actually quite simple. With the help of the HJ Virus I am able to hack into Patricia [computer system] and bypass security. Then all that's needed is to pick a suitable subject before it's implanted with the chip.

Weiss: Shelke, find a new one quickly.

The devs had never provided any time reference for the Multiplayer story but now, with Intergrade, we know for sure that the Tsviets are still under Shinra's control when Yuffie and Sonon met Nero on December 12, and, while the President will be killed the next night, it seems clear that Scarlet is the one who will take full control of Deepground until her defeat the next month.

Conclusion

My theory is that Sonon could be the perfect person to replace the Tsviet-candidate and the dead Restrictor, so that Weiss and the gang can pursure their plan of rebellion gainst Shinra:

Unlike many soldiers Sonon has proved to be an extremely strong and capable fighter standing up to Nero.

He has the right motivation as he seeks revenge against Shinra - especially Scarlet - for the death of his younger sister, which Shelke could further manipulate.

Unlike any other Deepground candidate, he has no working restriction chip implanted.

Sure, one could argue that Nero severely wounded him, but the game clearly reminded us before the battle that Nero can easily disintegrate the bodies of his victims, while he reserves a different treatment to this particoular character. And, by the way, this wouldn't even be the first time a Tsviet pretends to kill someone as Shelke did the same with the Tsviet-candidate. As far as I know the main DoC game never explained how the Tsviets overpowered the remaining Restrictors, who replaced the Tsviet-candidate or what happened to Argento - who isn't part of the DoC cast. Sonon might be the missing piece of this sub-plot that may lead to new secondary arcs that could tie a bit more Deepground to the main FFVII story.

An Attempt to Clinically Analyze Sephiroth's Psychosis at Nibelheim

Sephiroth has fascinated me as a villain for a long time, but I’ve also struggled to “figure him out” for just as long. For all the simplicity of his villainous goals (i.e. become a god, destroy the world), it’s really the heart of his breakdown in Nibelheim that confounded me regarding his motives and the causal factors behind how he becomes what he becomes. I think Sephiroth's story can be interpreted in drastically different ways depending on how you see the explanations for his breakdown preceding the Nibelheim Incident. Not to mention, there’s the multiple retellings of the incident within the Compilation and the inconsistencies that come with it.

I’m still in the process of unraveling how to approach Sephiroth’s psychology, so this won’t be a regular analysis. Rather, this is mostly going to be a stream-of-consciousness type of piece, where I just let my thoughts flow. Definitely expect some stuff to sound rough or disjointed, and possibly some inaccurate facts due to my terrible memory (please let me know). Also, for the sake of the most updated canon, we will go with the Crisis Core version of events.

~Major FFVII and Crisis Core spoilers ahead~

Psychosis

Firstly, I want to address the clinical term that can describe what happened to Sephiroth at Nibelheim. I’ve heard people call it a mental breakdown or psychotic break, among other things. If we want to be consistent with the psychiatric language of the DSM-5, we would say that Sephiroth experienced the onset of a psychotic episode.

Psychotic episodes are a state of significant psychological disturbance that involves a loss of touch with shared reality. Historically, what we now know as psychotic episodes were once called madness or insanity. The duration of an episode affects what type of psychotic disorder would apply, but overall, psychosis can be either transient or continuous.

It’s hard to say which is the case for Sephiroth, specifically because of how his prognosis transforms pre- and post-Lifestream dip. Pre-Lifestream, it’s clear that he went into an abrupt and severe state of psychosis. Even though there were already warning signs prior to when he holed himself up in the Shinra mansion basement, Sephiroth’s behavior change still occurred in a short amount of time and marked a drastic change from the anguish and confusion he initially experienced upon first learning what Jenova is. He is experiencing a psychotic episode that marks a clear departure from his prior functioning.

Afterwards though, Sephiroth learns what Jenova truly is and makes a conscious decision to use its power and influence over the Lifestream for his own means. At this point, we can’t say that it’s a temporary condition. Not to mention, the question of how much Jenova is influencing Sephiroth also complicates how we understand Sephiroth’s psychology. At best, I would say that post-Lifestream Sephiroth is experiencing an ongoing psychotic disturbance.

Delusions

At the heart of Sephiroth’s turning point to villainy is a delusion, a fixed and false belief that is resistant to change even in the presence of contradictory evidence. Although I've seen it used a lot in casual contexts, delusions are in fact a clinical term for distorted beliefs. Essentially, delusions exist beyond reason and cannot be logically refuted. Delusions are a hallmark feature of psychosis, involving a resistance to the facts of reality that conflict with one’s beliefs.

There are several reasons that someone might develop a delusion. Obviously these reasons aren't always mutually exclusive, but I think what reason you attribute to Sephiroth's breakdown influences how you understand it.

Certain people are genetically predisposed to delusional thinking. Jenova. Injected in the womb. Supernatural prenatal development. Need I say more?

People come up with distorted ways of explaining the unexplainable. This is the type of thinking that is linked to an inclination for conspiracy theories. Sephiroth was searching for answers about his birth and origins, and with false, piecemeal information, he formed the erroneous conclusion that he was a Cetra. I wouldn't say this is the driving force behind his decision to burn down Nibelheim, but you can see the gateway to vengeance through this avenue.

People have trouble coping with life and preserving their self-esteem, therefore they use delusions to attempt to uphold it. This is the most sympathetic perspective, mainly because it boils Sephiroth down to the misunderstood savant that is mourning the loss of his self-worth. More on this later, since this is the angle I see portrayed most in Crisis Core.

People experience significant life stressors, such as low socioeconomic status, trauma, and drastic life changes that heavily influence how they perceive and understand the world. We could create a whole list of known or presumed "life stressors" in Sephiroth's life, but if we want to highlight a specific one, it would be the discovery of the Jenova Project files. It could be argued that it was deeply traumatizing to him, enough to rock his worldview.

Reasons aside, there are also several different types of delusions classified in the DSM-5. I think Sephiroth shows features of at least two types. You could say Sephiroth experienced a grandiose delusion, or what you might know as a delusion of grandeur. This is defined by the belief that one is extremely powerful or important. Sometimes it even takes on a religious bend, leading to the belief that one is omnipotent or holy. Sephiroth believed he was the last of the Cetra race, one that was more connected to and respectful of the planet compared to humanity. He was "the chosen one to rule this planet," someone exceptional and superior to everyone else.

You could also say that Sephiroth was experiencing a persecutory delusion. This is when someone believes he is "being conspired against, cheated, spied on, followed, poisoned, maliciously maligned, harassed, or obstructed in the pursuit of long-term goals." Sephiroth drew the conclusion that he had a duty to punish humanity for persecuting the ancient Cetra. He believed he had to pursue vengeance for Jenova and for Cetrakind. People with persecutory delusions tend to demonstrate significant anger and violent behavior, which also checks out with Sephiroth's subsequent decision to burn down Nibelheim.

Obviously, both the grandiose and persecutory delusions transform a bit when Sephiroth learns about Jenova's true nature as an extraterrestrial, not a Cetra. But that's a conversation for another time; remember, we're talking about the psychotic episode that became the gateway to Sephiroth's villainy. So, let's backtrack a bit and talk about how Crisis Core chose to lean into a sympathetic portrayal of Sephiroth's psychology.

Self-Concept

We still know very little about Sephiroth’s childhood and upbringing (although it looks like Ever Crisis may change that?), aside from several key facts. We know that he was born an experiment, having been injected with Jenova cells in the womb. We know he was essentially raised by Shinra and did not get to experience a normal childhood. He was known to be a prodigious fighter and was the reason that the SOLDIER program was created. As a teenager, he fought in the Wutai War and gained his status as a war hero.

This is all to say that though Sephiroth knew little of his childhood, he knew one thing for certain. He was a very good fighter, and a hero to Shinra. Sephiroth’s established self-concept revolves around this fact. He was likely praised and lauded for his wartime achievements, and even before then, we can presume that Shinra scientists noted him to be an exceptional fighter. He was the epitome of prestige and strength.

Let’s contrast that with the information he gains right before the Nibelheim Incident. When Sephiroth sees the monsters at the reactor and begins to question his connection to them, he began to mull over his identity and existence. Sephiroth knew he was unusual and exceptional even as a child, and he said so himself that he doesn't know what it was like to have parents or a hometown to speak of. Genesis then reinforces what Sephiroth feared, that he is a monster and a product of experimentation. He was told he was subhuman, repulsive, an abomination.

Sephiroth’s self-concept started as that of a prodigy, someone who is an extremely capable fighter. After the war in Wutai, he was labeled a war hero. Once he was led to believe that he was a monster, this shatters his worldview. He went from seeing himself as a prominent hero to seeing himself as subhuman. This is further driven by the fact that Sephiroth had already lacked answers about his origins and craved a sense of home, of parental warmth and connection. Because of this gap in his history, the premise that he was no more than a monster was eerily plausible. With his self-concept dramatically rocked, he was left starving for answers to what he is. This is what led him down the rabbit hole, seeking an explanation that would either tell him that he was not a monster, or that his initial self-concept can still be upheld somehow.

And thus, Sephiroth was in a vulnerable place where a grandiose or persecutory delusion can uphold his self-esteem and self-concept. If Jenova is truly the last of an ancient race, then Sephiroth is exceptional, not an abomination. If the Cetra had powers that humans didn't have, then Sephiroth was powerful, not just a monster. The delusion takes hold because it is something Sephiroth needed in order to preserve his worldview, his belief that he is special and important.

This is how Crisis Core gets you to sympathize with Sephiroth. He's painted as a lonely savant that lacked a home and a family, and so when he was told he was a monster, his self-concept was shattered and radically warped. In order for him to protect it, he needed to come up with a delusion that would uphold his understanding of the world. Sound familiar? I don't think it's a coincidence that Sephiroth's psychology here sounds parallel to Cloud's, especially since I've considered delusional disorder for them both.

It'll be a while before I gather enough thoughts to move onto how Sephiroth progressed from this state to his post-Lifestream-dip, Meteor-summoning, god-seeking self. But for now, I think this helps paint a picture of how I've been trying to conceptualize him.

Great post!

I guess the problem and the cause of all these (convenient) misinterpretations is indeed her persistent presence in the compilation. Or better, all the characters are present in more or less all the entries but she is the only character who is always shown indissolubly linked to Cloud. Which is what bothers part of the fandom.

If her physical presence can't be ignored, the only other way to make her "unharmful" is to try to diminish her relevance in the story.

But is there a greater proof of her importance than the fact itself that fans need to spend so much energy in twisting her role to make her seem an ininfluent or even a villainous character?

So the Lifestream sequence becomes unimportant, she's irrelevant, she's bully, she's insensitive, she's just fancervice, she gets rejected, she's a rebound, she lacks a character arc...let alone Case of Tifa and Advent Children... She is just there watching the other characters playing their roles.

The question is: does it ever work?

Because whenever the fandom spent too much effort spreading misinterpretations SE took advantage of the following entries to debunk them. Remake is no exception.

And it's just part 1.

Tifa is important to the FF7 story (OG and Remake) straight up due to her abundant, consistent involvement in the story—you know, the actual events of what is being written. She has more than this, but that’s the most basic level that a character can be important to a story….by simply being a prime force within it. Get out of here with anything even less than this as this understanding shouldn’t be skipped over.

“Being Important” in storytelling is something I think people perceive very weirdly in fandom for characters. Importance can be judged on different levels, but the level of that for characters should be looked at on the level of story involvement first and foremost.

Any character that is one of the protagonists, a part of your party, and literally is involved and thus affects and interacts with all story beats—something so basic needs to be understood as important. Tifa is one of the heroes, she’s on the journey from the beginning and continues throughout…you can’t get any more straight forward than this for the story. Describing it as “just being there” or “occupying space” is just stupid, I won’t sugarcoat that honestly. And the interaction she has in the story obviously goes beyond that of just “Cloud’s love interest”. She’s not just standing around, T-posing in the background while being that, and it’s a gross view of how that information is even expressed in the story itself. Any good writer that has a character interacting so much with the story [actual events] is bound to have them interacting with plot [the “what”/overall story event chain that sets the “what”] , if not the overall narrative [”how and why”/purpose of plot and structure], eventually. That’s not always the case, at least directly anyway, but even in those cases it can be examined on a micro level. But even if it doesn’t track to the line of narrative, this won’t stop them from having an involvement with story and plot if they’re included all the way through these things.

Now granted, especially in an extended series, there can be a difference between being an “important character” and being “important to a story”. Both Tifa and Cloud aren’t the primary characters in Dirge of Cerberus or Before Crisis, but obviously they still remain to be important to FF7 (OG and Remake), AC, or even Crisis Core as their roles there interact directly with key plot points for FF7. So like, still, “Tifa isn’t an important character” doesn’t stand to be a thought from a knowledgeable mind of the series.

Talk about a coincidence!

(Previous post here)

On 14th February 2019, Square Enix decided to celebrate Valentine’s day with an article about 

5 great Final Fantasy love stories.

Here we find:

- Noctis & Lunafreya (FFXV)

- Tidus & Yuna (FFX)

- Maria & Draco (FFVI)

- Squall & Rinoa (FFVIII)

and..........

Zidane & Garnet? Celes & Locke? Serah & Snow?

No

Zack & Aerith. Crisis Core. 

Weird. This happened just one year before the release of the Remake, where, coincidentally, there are tons of Crisis Core references. Aerith almost cries while remembering Zack, Zack survives his last stand and there is a beautiful slow-motion scene where Zack and Aerith perceive each other’s presence while Hollow starts playing...

But don’t worry,

It must be just a coincidence!

Cloud’s character arc in a single sentence

AERITH & TIFA CG IN BRAVE EXVIUS