Favorite things you'd never noticed on your first playthrough

[Scotty_ffgamer]

So I've been going through the game again, and even though I've played this game all the way through only once before, I've found a lot of it is still pretty memorable to me. However, I never noticed before today that Mukki can be found in the bar when you first go to Costa del Sol.

"I really like this town. You could walk around nearly naked, and no one'd look twice at you."

Good ol' Mukki.

What are some interesting things you've never noticed before when you've played this game again?

[Ayen]

That you can actually get inside the Hooney Bee Inn. Yeah, before this site I didn't even know that was feasible. I remember seeing the entrance and everything, but never being able to get inside. I can't even remember how I got inside the last playthrough.

[Bubba]

I actually didn't notice this for the first 5 or 6 playthroughs but Cid makes a throwaway comment about a test rocket that "crashed somewhere in he Midgar slums" and he was "glad it didn't go off".

I never realised that it actually landed in the church in Sector 5.

65871

[Laddy]

Aerith.

Aerith was always the "ill-fated nice girl who dies" character to me. She was a damsel-in-distress who looked pretty and then died because Cloud needed a reason to angst.

It wasn't until my last few playthroughs did I realize how fun she is. She can be flirty. She can be sarcastic. She can be goofy. Hell, she even jokes about how Cloud is her "knight" because she's aware of how unassuming and, dare I say, normal she is. She's not a Virgin Mary stand-in who sacrifices herself to save the world because maternal symbolism. She's a feisty, outgoing, spunky, sometimes boy-crazy and sometimes mischievous young woman who likes to have fun. Her death is tragic not just because she was some nice girl who Cloud liked, but because she was a funny, lively, and courageous chick who just happened to be blessed/cursed with a special destiny and she chose to follow it despite the dangers, not regardless of them. Aerith loved life and living, but she was prepared to die because it was the right thing to do, not because she felt she was supposed to.

Aerith threatened to rip off Don Corneo's balls. She dragged Cloud into dressing like a girl partly because she thought it would be fun. She knew Cloud was not who he said he was. She was ahead of the game when he tried to sneak out. Aerith is a badass and it's saddened to see she has been reduced to the cliché "Broken Bird" trope that robs her of her individuality and personhood.

BTW: Emma Stone would be my pick to play Aerith in a live-action FFVII adaptation, btw. Her looks and attitude are perfect.

[Formalhaut]

Aerith.

Aerith was always the "ill-fated nice girl who dies" character to me. She was a damsel-in-distress who looked pretty and then died because Cloud needed a reason to angst.

It wasn't until my last few playthroughs did I realize how fun she is. She can be flirty. She can be sarcastic. She can be goofy. Hell, she even jokes about how Cloud is her "knight" because she's aware of how unassuming and, dare I say, normal she is. She's not a Virgin Mary stand-in who sacrifices herself to save the world because maternal symbolism. She's a feisty, outgoing, spunky, sometimes boy-crazy and sometimes mischievous young woman who likes to have fun. Her death is tragic not just because she was some nice girl who Cloud liked, but because she was a funny, lively, and courageous chick who just happened to be blessed/cursed with a special destiny and she chose to follow it despite the dangers, not regardless of them. Aerith loved life and living, but she was prepared to die because it was the right thing to do, not because she felt she was supposed to.

Aerith threatened to rip off Don Corneo's balls. She dragged Cloud into dressing like a girl partly because she thought it would be fun. She knew Cloud was not who he said he was. She was ahead of the game when he tried to sneak out. Aerith is a badass and it's saddened to see she has been reduced to the cliché "Broken Bird" trope that robs her of her individuality and personhood.

BTW: Emma Stone would be my pick to play Aerith in a live-action FFVII adaptation, btw. Her looks and attitude are perfect.

I agree completely, Aerith has always been a complex, multi-faceted character. It's why her death is so saddening really. In the build-up to her death and the whole Temple of Ancients story, you see her character become more determined, less prone to jokes, as she comes to understand what she is and her purpose is. Contrast that to how she is in Midgar, sarcastic, spunky, etc. and it is quite noticeable.

[MJN SEIFER]

That the Black Caped Figures in Nibelheim are the people from Cloud's flashback, or at least some of them are. It was the fact that one of them doesn't talk unless you talk to the other one first that helped me realize this - it's those two kids from the flashback; the boy repeats what the girl say (incorrectly), and if you talk to these two Blacked Caped Figures, who are in the same house, they still talk like the other Sephiroth Clones do, but one of them says (I think) "reunion", and the other one says something like "...ion" (i.e. the end of "reunion").