And since I am playing it right now, so it is on my mind to speak about: Is it just me or did Sakaguchi-san go down the "whatever"-route the last hour of Final Fantasy IX? People complain about the Materia stuff from CD2 in FFVII but there are at least some reasons. For the last half of Memoria they want to foreshadow the Crystal. And for that they create memory-share out of the blue: "Oh, well. Not everyone has just their own memories from their own life, it all comes down to the connection to the Existence God which is the Crystal which Kuja wants to destroy." Yeah. That is not really an explanation why out of all people and right at that moment Zidane got a memory share from Garnet just "because the Crystal can do so." If they wanted it to happen randomly then it should at least in the story have occasionally happened and really to others as well for Garland's speech about "all people think they only have their own memories" to make sense so it does not come off as so weird and this way really show, "oh, so that was what it all was about," instead of it only happening in the final moments and as mentioned only for Zidane (for us to see) which is also not explained or they should have brought up a proper explanation, not so random then, about why the Crystal does that in special occasions, which could have been used to establish how close Zidane and Garnet are during the finale. Their sprites were also the only ones on screen so they could have really used it and imply it as them being alone there and it being a special moment for them rather than making it look like the only show the sprites that are relevant while the others are most likely still there but not displayed. (The whole display part I just mentioned is not as relevant as it is only one possibility I wanted to talk about when it comes to solve these things but still, I wanted to mention it as well while the overall problem is that whole not really properly told memory share riddle including Zidane) Zidane asked multiple times why HE had the memories. But with the "explanation" given he basically was just lucky to have gotten them instead of any of the others.
Just out of curiosity, which do you consider the fourth FF with aliens? Because counting the Terrans from FFIX or the people from the other fragment of the world from FFV aliens basically demands calling everyone from another dimension aliens as well. I know FFV has its meteors but it also has freaking portals in them so it is not really the same thing to me as "straight from outer space, period."
Jenova to me has always struck me more as Lovecraftian in nature, which for me, follows along your logic of "technically these creatures are aliens, but they don;t really feel like it as much as just being a force of nature". I honestly find Jenova incredibly fascinating or this reason so if the remake wants to make me happy, I would like for her to play a larger role though I don't need her to speak or anything. She's better off without characterization. Honestly its odd when you really think about the fact Final Fantasy uses aliens quite a bit within the series. Four entries have straight up aliens and a few more have "technically aliens" as well when you think about it.
Going back to FFVII for a moment, despite it being my most favourite piece of fiction ever and knowing it inside out, I occasionally find myself surprised how it is a story with a freáking alien involved as in, "oh yeah, there is an alien in the story" even though I already know it. But the very fact that Jenova is an alien never seems to register as in "btw it is a monster from outer space like the Xenomorphs or Lavos." The aliens in VIII, which are the normal monsters never come across as such for me. Only Jenova does. Especially as it plays such an integral role. Then again even the most magic-reeking moments in the story are totally off the chart such as the Temple of the Ancients, Forgotten Capital to an extent, Whirlwind Maze (or Sephiroth's spectre-like appearances) and seem totally different from that "magic" you get to see before. These moments are really otherworldly and full-on fantasy.
Honestly, I feel the biggest hurdle every author has to deal with at some point in their writing is learning to accept and settle for what they've written instead of striving for perfection because in my own experience, perfection is simply impossible. When I write, I make it a policy to never go back and re-read anything I've written on that particular story except maybe a paragraph or two at the end to simply remind myself where I left off, because I have a very bad habit of wanting to edit and "make it better" and that in itself is a crap shoot cause I have plenty of half finished works that never saw conclusion because they have remained in editing hell. I may fix something if I notice a major flaw in the logic, but I also tend to plan out my settings to such a degree that it is easy to maintain some form of consistency, at least in the case of more fantasy/sci-fi settings. It helps inconsistent world design is a pet peeve of mine, so I tend to put a lot of focus on that, so perhaps that can help with your own writing. I usually write out a story bible for my projects just to keep my head straight.
In case of FFVII it is not even necessary that it was because of a mix of early and late drafts. I have the same problem with Beyond Two Souls. As mentioned, for such characters you do not even need to mix drafts and adapt them, you are simply always writing yourself in a corner so you only have the option of going for the only possible way, leading to a stiff writing style, or sacrificing the 100% logical consistency and this way being able to write what you want. I have encountered that problem myself all too often. I want to write something and always have to keep in mind everything to have the most consistent story possible. But this can force you to do something you do not want to all the time and this way also take out the fun for you while writing. I also always WANT to keep the consistency but it just drags me down so much so often to feel the need to do that instead of "just writing". Some people can flip the switch or just not think about it in the first place. I, with all my neuroticism and urge to perfect something that is dear to me do not know if I want to do that, even if I could so there is an inner conflict with my neurotic and the side that wants to resists that neuroticism. And I always keep thinking how annoying the neuroticism can be but also have to think about how much valuable info and character growth I got through it. It is very hard for me throw the annoying part in the garbage and only make use of it for what is good for me.
Yes, I meant Jenova being possessed by Sephiroth, my mind usually works faster than my hands when jotting things down which is why my grammar can be pretty atrocious. I apologize for the misunderstanding but it seems like you figured it out. If studying the translations of a few games I've loved has taught me anything, its that translations often contain errors but sometimes, it's also just because the way these games are built can create inconsistencies since the director doesn't take a direct hand in every scene. So when the people work on that scene makes changes, it sometimes creates the inconsistencies found within the overall scripts, but then other times it creates some interesting ideas that end up changing the script overall. Reading just the few translated interviews about the development of FFVIII, leads me to conclude that game's inconsistent nature really was a result of Nojima trying to cater to all of the staff demands no matter how contradictory they may seem from a logical perspective. Likewise, I sometimes feel the inconsistencies in VII's narrative really come from some parts of the game following the early scripts while other sequences follow the later drafts similar to FFVI and how Celes' spy backstory is inconsistent to the overall narrative or how figures like Seigfried may have had more of a role in the early drafts before getting cut for time. Likewise, the main reason Sephy takes the long road to his plan is simply because the staff always intended that to be the case because they wanted to have a story about the heroes chasing down a villain. The inconsistencies with how Sephy could have accomplished everything with all his powers was likely due to the fact his powers were vague in the early drafts to begin with so they didn't need to conform the story to account for them, and likely because I feel finding Sephy's original body was likely not in the first draft of the script and was added later to serve as a twist with no one realizing it created a few problems. FF is rife with these kind of issues because these games never have a formal script that everyone adheres to with dogmatic scrutiny.
Well, it is fine if you answer yourself the gaps with fantheories but you know they are of no worth to me or else I would do "answer" it myself. I am the 100% establishment guy and from KH you already know that a splinter of glass missing in the window is a nightmare for a me. Well. No perfect analogy. In KH's case the entire window is missing with the frame. And the house. And the ground. ___ Just now I also found a wrong sentence analysis in the Memorial Ultimania that I did not see before and that covers one line that during that time is meant in a completely different context. So you see - I absolutely am critical even when it comes to the one that could have written it more consistent or in case of that sentence analysis, the one that was supposed to explain what the line written by Nojima-san means (it is about Cloud saying that Tifa hopefully will meet the real Cloud and the book sells it like the character traits but Cloud at this point in the story says that because Sephiroth sells the story that Cloud is a completely manmade copy of a guy called Cloud with memories given through the cells and mimicking ability which even leads to Barret being surprised that Shinra apparently can make people from scratch). You can ignore that part and do not need to respond. It is just an example of me being honest and critical. I fully agree with everyone that says "the Ultimania", or in this case that Memorial one, does also make some mistakes. Technically they could take that as the new official thing but I doubt they will. They are supposed to explain stuff but I doubt Nojima-san ever read everything so he will likely go with what he wrote and the Ultimania will still remain with some inconsistencies just like Chiba-san obviously never read Maiden and contradicted it with Dirge of Cerberus. Anyway - back to what we really talked about. ___ That is why it is such a problem. Because of missing and inconsistent stuff which only leads me to hope it improves. So it is not like I mention inconsistencies so fans can explain it with a theory but in such a case - and I think that is a surprise to some that know my passion about the franchise - I criticise these established things with full honesty. And I do not know what you mean with "Jenova possessed Sephy" because that reads like Sephiroth possessed by Jenova which, of course is the Brittenham theory and, which, of course is wrong as completely contradicted by CD2 of the game where they say he used his will for it all. But maybe you just wrote it in a way that was easy to misunderstand. And the location thing I already answered. The crater is a gathering point of spirit energy. But in the most technical sense it would be totally irrelevant which body casts it. He could use his throw away body hosting his will/consciousness to cast it as it was also in the Whirlwind Maze and still absorb life energy with his own original body later without playing games (no of course because of his arrogance he thinks he wins anyway but that is no actual explanation for the whole time wasting extra stuff that delays his godhood). No reason to make all that extra stuff. I also read your Jenova incompatibily part but there is was no establishment so I also cannot use that. There is also something about Jenova's mimicking ability that was never explained when it comes to the reforming of the body and depending on how it is meant thhis would also be contradictory to that theory. But if it were true it would also be contradictory to something else in the actual game so inconsistencies over inconsistencies. "human rationale of his alien instincts he's following." - Right. That is really the only "control". Like our hunger. Not some silly Brittenham mind control master plan theory. He embraces it to reach for the superlative. Your Black Materia thing was actually the only thing I ever had that would come close to a theory and that was the murals not showing just Meteor but that the Cetra accidentally called Jenova by casting the Meteor spell and it was inside of that floating rock. But of course there is no actual evidence so I never use it for anything. You know how I am when it comes to that. And yes, I am sure they go the long route as it means a story that is not over after a few hours. I just would want 1 minute of actual explanation. They already said he wanted to control the copies so Nojima-san could basically just expand on that part.
I feel there are two fanwank theories I can give to have an answer here. The first is most likely the real reason, Sephy took the long road because he was doing it to smurf with Cloud. This is especially true with waiting to have Cloud give him the Black Materia because nothing would probably send him over the edge more than knowing that he helped him the whole way, and Sephy didn't bother with direct control most of the time because it would have given Cloud an excuse not to feel everything wasn't his fault. So yeah, just plain old bitter revenge for hurting his pride back in Nibelheim. Theory two is less likely, but intriguing, Sephy didn't actually do half the stuff Cloud saw, but instead Sephy made him think it. The Midgard Zolom and Jenova battles are Jenova possessed Sephy of course, but things like talking to Dio or the truck driver never occurred, but when Cloud speaks to them, Sephy makes him hear what he wants to hear or see what he wants to see. There is of course no evidence for this one, but it is an amusing thought experiment. As for Sephy needing his original body to cast Meteor, I would imagine that it was simply due to location, with his physical body being conveniently trapped in a mako rich area required to summon the materia. Outside of Mideel, most other mako rich locations seen within the game have been harvested by Shin-Ra, so just getting it to him would work out better since it resolves the second half of the requirements to use. Another idea may be that Jenova's alien biology makes it incapable of using materia from the planet since it's a foreign being, but that theory is unlikely and personally, I still feel like the black materia came from her originally anyway. Sephy ultimately has the same problem that Ex-Death has which is that he puts a lot of effort into gaining godlike powers despite the fact that they have so many story breaking powers to begin with that they really don't need the plot device powers in the first place. Course I tend to hand wave it all away because Ex-Death is an amalgamation of evil, so it would make sense that he would be so greedy to always want more, whereas Sephy's goal isn't far off from what Jenova does anyway and so his plan is just a human rationale of his alien instincts he's following. Overall, I still imagine Sephy is going to take the long road mindrape path like he did the original, so bread crumbs ever after.
I always figured Sephy never showed off the full extent of his abilities in Disc 1 simply because he just needed to leave bread crumbs for Cloud. - And that's where the entire problem lies. He does not need to travel via fat trucker to travel around and he does not need Cloud to follow him. He has access to Cloud's mind and his body (no, not the perverted way). He could have made this a very short journey. It does not even make sense that he wants Cloud to give him the Materia. He is remote controlling Jenova's body. He could have given it to his normal body the moment he flew away from the Temple and summoned Meteor. They never even explained why Sephiroth needs to use his normal body to summon it and cannot do it with his reshaped one. He needs to use the spirit energy in the crater, sure. But there is no actual reason to use his normal body to summon it. He wanted to control the copies, as they said. But he needed no copy to hand over the Materia to his normal body. But whatever, I could forgive that. The other previous stuff is still absolutely unnecessary. That is always the problem with Sephiroth - they gave him too many powers so they had to ignore half of them to make a plot and make him beatable. But I doubt they will change that. Or Scarlet's foreshadowing of the Sister Ray that is so weirdly written. That is always the problem with such stories. You need to ignore your own stuff to even make one the way you want even if you have a villain that could kill everyone within the first hour.
