It would have been sweet if...

[Dignified Pauper]

Okay, so this didn't happen, but just think how much more sweet the story would be if this were to occur.


Okay, so we have Jenova Cells, remnants of the great calamity that befell the Cetra. It acted like a virus, mutating the Cetra and creating more of itself, in a sense.

Okay, so, propose this. What if Jenova, the monster you fight so much, was actually the product of Jenova Cells put inside Ifalna, the last living Cetra. We see that Cloud has Jenova Cells put inside him, but he doesn't mutate, but rather, develops, like most homosapiens do, geostigma.

So, what if Ifalna was never killed but captured after Aerith's birth by Hojo and put under rigorous experiments with Jenova Cells?

This would relate to how the orphans, in the end of Advent Children, called Aerith "sister" or what I could only allude to them referring that the sister is Aerith. Kadaj and the silver haired trio all refer to Jenova as Mother, Cloud as Brother, and it would make sense. Aerith was in fact Ifalna's child, thus a sister of them, and then the orphans injected with Jenova Cells would refer to her as sister because they shared part of her (that is, the Jenova Cells came from the hybrid beast of Ifalna and Jenova Cells.)

Lofty theory, and probably not plausible, but still an interesting idea. I do think that if this were the case, the story would improve dramatically.


*man, where is Squall of Seed when I propose these crazy ideas*

[Flying Mullet]

I haven't seen Advent Children so all I could do is pick my nose as I read this.

[mooglebunni608]

I think it's a pretty good idea, it'd make a lot of sense.

[Masamune·1600]

Okay, so this didn't happen, but just think how much more sweet the story would be if this were to occur.


Okay, so we have Jenova Cells, remnants of the great calamity that befell the Cetra. It acted like a virus, mutating the Cetra and creating more of itself, in a sense.

Okay, so, propose this. What if Jenova, the monster you fight so much, was actually the product of Jenova Cells put inside Ifalna, the last living Cetra. We see that Cloud has Jenova Cells put inside him, but he doesn't mutate, but rather, develops, like most homosapiens do, geostigma.

So, what if Ifalna was never killed but captured after Aerith's birth by Hojo and put under rigorous experiments with Jenova Cells?

This would relate to how the orphans, in the end of Advent Children, called Aerith "sister" or what I could only allude to them referring that the sister is Aerith. Kadaj and the silver haired trio all refer to Jenova as Mother, Cloud as Brother, and it would make sense. Aerith was in fact Ifalna's child, thus a sister of them, and then the orphans injected with Jenova Cells would refer to her as sister because they shared part of her (that is, the Jenova Cells came from the hybrid beast of Ifalna and Jenova Cells.)

Lofty theory, and probably not plausible, but still an interesting idea. I do think that if this were the case, the story would improve dramatically.


*man, where is Squall of Seed when I propose these crazy ideas*


I agree with the fact that the story would have been improved with some sort of twist of that nature, assuming that it would not come off feeling contrived and artificial. The problem, however, is as you suggest; your theory isn't plausible. Even ignoring the canon material introduced by AC (which, had the story been implemented as you suggest, wouldn't exist in the same fashion), the concept contradicts the source material of Final Fantasy VII.

First off, JENOVA is the "Calamity from the Skies," and still exists during the events of the game. The "Ancient" recovered by Professor Gast was actually JENOVA, and the entity, despite having been sealed for ~2,000 years, was alive. JENOVA, moreover, is notable in that its cells remain alive, even when separated from the main body. Hence, after Sephiroth took the head from JENOVA and plunged into the depths of the reactor, the body (as well as the head) remained alive. It was later transported to Midgar, only to take on the "Sephiroth form" afterwards. Thus, the "Jenova monsters" fought during the game actually are JENOVA (or are at least directly derivative) in the most literal sense. As such, JENOVA and Ifalna cannot be one and the same.

Moreover, the fate of Ifalna is known. During FFVII, one witnesses a flashback whereby Aeris comes under the care of Elmyra; during this flashback, Ifalna dies. The body could not have been reanimated/reused/whatever as Aeris, who is explicitly understood to be able to communicate with the Planet, states that her mother had "returned to the Planet.


Elmyra: One day, I went to the station because I got a letter saying he was
coming home on leave. My husband never came back. I wonder if something
happened to him? No, I'm sure his leave was just canceled. I went to the
station everyday. Then, one day……… You used to see this sort of thing a
lotduring the war. Her last words were, "Please take Aeris somewhere safe." My
husband never came back. I had no child. I was probably lonely. So I decided to
take her home with me. Aeris and I became close very quickly. That child loved
to talk. She used to talk to me about everything. She told me she escaped from
some kind of research laboratory somewhere. And that her mother had already
returned to the planet, so she wasn't lonely…and many other things.

Still further, there is no proof the Cetra have a particular vulnerability to JENOVA cell-induced mutation, nor that normal humans have any sort of increased immunity. While the Icicle Inn films do state that JENOVA infected the Cetra, which led to monstrous transformations, one might presume that such had to do with JENOVA's full and direct involvement. Humans, on the other hand, show all manner of different reactions to JENOVA cell injection. Members of SOLDIER show no real detrimental effects. Cloud, obviously, was (partially because of the JENOVA cells) able to screw with his memory of the Nibelheim disaster, and was able to be manipulated by Sephiroth. The CLONES, the black-garbed survivors of the disaster alluded to in the letter to Hojo, lost all sense of self and had their free will completely destroyed. Hojo exhibited obvious physical mutation. Geostigma was a concept introduced for AC, and did not appear in FFVII. As a result, its cause had to derive from something, anything, that had changed during the interval between FFVII and AC. That something ended up being Sephiroth, whose physical body was "destroyed," but whose will (embodied in JENOVA) lived on. In short, Geostigma could only exist once Sephiroth had been blown apart.

Sephiroth was an enormously popular villain, and it shouldn't really come as a surprise that SE wanted to find a way to bring him back for Advent Children. However, without resorting to increasingly improbable instances of deus ex machina, or using a method that simply doesn't make sense, SE was limited by the original material. The SHM worked because they actually were Sephiroth, or rather were the physical manifestation of his divided consciousness. When his body was blown apart, it couldn't die in the normal sense, because Sephiroth and JENOVA are inextricalby linked, and JENOVA can only die when all of its cells are destroyed. As a result, his body, which integrated both normal organic materia and JENOVA cells, reformed into the SHM. As such, they were unknowingly subject to his will (at least to a certain extent). More JENOVA cells were needed, however, to fully realize Sephiroth on Gaia.

If the SHM were merely the progeny of Ifalna/JENOVA, there is no real reason that Kadaj could have become Sephiroth.

As to the matter of someone referring to Aeris as his or her "sister," Marlene does so. However, Kadaj refers to Aeris as "Mother," apparently believing that she was actually JENOVA. The SHM do not think of Aeris as a sister; in fact, there's nothing to indicate that they are aware of her at all.

Again, it's not a bad idea, it just doesn't wholly work within the context of the FFVII universe.

[Dignified Pauper]

sadly, but it would, IMP be very compelling.

[AdVincent]

Who the hell is Ifalna?

[Skyblade]

Who the hell is Ifalna?

Ifalna is Aeris' mother.

[Acid Raine]

Nice theory. I think it is plausible, in the vaguest of senses. It's not like Aerith was in-tune with her Cetra ability to undertsnad the planet when she was that young....

[Captain Maxx Power]

The best way to understand how Jenova operates is to see John Carpenter's The Thing. In it an alien exsists that can infect other organisms, even through a single cell, and transform them into whatever shape it likes. Even when seperated from it's main body it can still live (see the scene with the "head spider"). It too can transform into humans, and lives frozen for thousands of years before it is found by a group of scientists. The parallels between Jenova and The Thing are so profound one has to wonder if it was a direct inspiration in some way.

[Dignified Pauper]

perhaps, but most of the game draws from jewish mysticism.