Final Fantasy 7 Theory: The nature of Jenova.
I was replaying the original Final Fantasy 7, and noticed that "Jenova" is a vey interesting villain; the game does not really explain Jenova in detail, but from the bits of information that the party collect during their adventure I have built a theory about the origin and nature of "Jenova".
I deduced that Jenova is what I would call a "Parasitic Planet"
In Cosmo Canyon, Bugenhagen (Red XIII's adoptive grandfather) tells the party that planets are living things capable of feelings and thoughts of their own, planets also have a "survival instinct" and take action to try and preserve their own lives, even at the expense of killing other sentient species, for example in the final act of FF7, the planet, (Also know as "Gaia") unleashes the "Weapons" to destroy the humans that are threatening his existence; so we know planets want to survive, and are willing to kill in order to do so, following that logic "Jenova" may be a planet that had adapted to survive at the expense of other planets.
In the final act of FF7 Advent Children, Sephiroth reveals to Cloud that Jenova intends to corrupt the Lifestream of the planet in order to gain full control of it and the use it as a vessel to travel through space in search for another planet to invade and start the cycle anew.
So my theory is that "Jenova" used to be a thriving planet, inhabited by intelligent life, much like the "Gaia" planet from FF7, unfortunately the intelligent species native to "Jenova" developed technology and begun exploiting the Mako energy from their planet; "Jenova" tried to defend itself, but failed, (As we see in FF7 "Weapons" are powerful but no invincible) the Mako exploitation continued to the point that most of life in "Jenova" was extinguished, and the few species that survived became horribly mutated due to Mako exposure and transformed into vicious monsters, the intelligent species responsible for all this, either died out due to the decay of the planet or, (more likely) escape into outer space using spaceships in search for a new planet to inhabit.
"Jenova" was left a desiccated husk of a planet, almost depleted of Mako and desperately clinging to life, so using the last of its strength, "Jenova" took control of what little was left of its lifestream and started propelling itself through space, thus becoming the first "Meteor"
After some time flying through space, "Jenova" found a healthy planet, it intentionally crashed itself into this newfound planet at full speed, causing this poor planet a grievous wound, which naturally caused the lifestream of that planet to gather in a attempt to heal the injury, "Jenova" immediately started absorbing the lifestream of the wounded planet, which was now is new "host", at the same time, the brutal Mako monsters that still lived in the rotten surface of Jenova, stared pouring into the host planet, and went on killing all the native species in order to "liberated" more Mako for "Jenova" to steal.
When all the Mako became tainted and all the lifeforms were either dead or mutated into monsters, the "Host" planet exploded into several pieces each one becoming a new "Meteor" each one containing the cursed seed of "Jenova", a planet, which due to dire necessity, evolved/mutated into a parasite that preys on other planets.
What made "Jenova" even more horrifying is that it is actually an intelligent, deliberate parasite, it could absorb the memories of the intelligent beings it kills, and use those memories in order to mimic their appearances, to lure and manipulate the loved ones of its victims; (Ifalna, birth mother of Aerith, reveals this to Professor Gast in some old videotapes the party found in Icicle Inn)
My theory is that "Jenova" have the ability to telepathically "speak" to intelligent beings, in the story of FF7 the people of Nibelheim reported hearing disembodied "voices" and having horrible nightmares after the Mako reactor in Mount Nibel was put in operation, this was very likely the "Jenova" sample stored into the reactor trying to telepathically "speak" to the people of Nibelheim in order to manipulate them.
My theory is that Jenova used is telepathic abilities to communicated with the "Cetra", this would have been easy because the "Cetra" trained themselves to hear "The voice of the planet" so they were specially receptive to Jenova's message, she manipulated them into building the "Black Materia" maybe by presenting itself as a benevolent spirit / goddess, or maybe by luring them with promises of great power, (probably a combination of both) and so the "Cetra" were fooled, they built the great "Ancient Temple" (The uncompressed for of the Black Materia) which worked like a beacon, guiding "Jenova" the errand goddess of space, straight to the Cetra's home planet "Gaia".
"Jenova" arrived with a brutal impact into the northern lands of "Gaia" and the only gifts it brought was death, destruction an hordes of monsters.
The Cetra rushed to battle, eager to correct their terrible mistake and destroy the evil invader from the stars, the ensuing war was a total carnage, and the Cetra claimed the victory, but at the most terrible price, their whole race was decimated, for all practical purposes they became extinct.
Unfortunately a sample of the parasite still survived, it hide itself by burrowing deep under the ice, there it lay dormant, hibernating, waiting for a chance, and in time that chance came, in the form of professor Gast, head scientist of Shinra Inc... and that as they say, is that.
Well that was my theory on the origins and nature of Jenova, thanks for reading and please share your opinion o the comments.
