Gunblade specialization

[Iceglow]

Look at the double President Deling.
He is a Shumi.
Gerogero is not a monster as he made you think.
He is a Shumi who left the village and in consequence his arms grow unproportional.
Evidence:The similarity between Gerogero and Shumi´s graphics.
Gerogero is a Shumi aberration.

He looks waxy, not like a Shumi. However I will indulge your crackpot theory if you can provide screenshot evidence that ALL the people in your list are shumi's if you can provide me irrefutable evidence in screenshot form where the game explicitly states that they are Shumi's then I will accept it. If however as I know you will not be able to provide such evidence I will uphold my view that your theory is a crackpot one which is not only baseless but also unfounded.

And Norg is apparently going to evolve into something else. But apart from that, it's good to know that there are some people on the VIII board who like the simplest solution.

Also, on your point on other people in the world using gunblades - Laguna (during the movie scene) says, on picking up a gunblade, something along the lines of: "It's been a while since I've used one of these."

You also mentioned that Garden was founded at the end of the Sorceress War, which I didn't think of. But there would be a lot of unemployed veterans at that point, so it is likely that more than a few ended up at Garden.

Oh, there's also the White SeeDs, which I'm trying to fit into this picture. They were the orphans before Squall and co, correct?

From what I remember in the game there is a question posed to Squall during the Shumi village quest of "has NORG evolved yet?" I would assume that at the time he set the Garden up with Cid he actually hadn't evolved and was still a small Shumi. I assume for some reason he actually evolved in to an Elder and then unlike the elder of the village he had a life of corpulence and indulgence fed by the money he made from Cid and SeeD as a mercenary force making him much fatter.

The reference Laguna makes to having not used a gunblade in years is actually "I haven't used one of these since basic training" this implies he hasn't used one since he initially joined the army, However we cannot really narrow down this any further since the game never tells us when Laguna initially joined the military or how many years he was in it for though I would assume around 5 - 10 years since he is 27 during the flashbacks according to the manual. All we learn is that he is an officer in command of a squad but not high enough ranked to get a red uniform (I would suggest this indicated he was not a Commissioned Officer but an NCO instead, maybe a sargent) and that during the war he is pensioned off due to injury sustained along with his squad mates for their impromptu assault on the still being excavated Lunatic Pandora. We know that after this he went on a journey what lasted many months (possibly years even) eventually ending in the end of the Sorceress War at his hands by the imprisoning of Adel 17 years prior to the game events.

With the white SeeD or Edea's SeeD as they call themselves are never truly explained in the game. However Irvine helps the party remember Edea from the orphanage. Notice the fact that they remember Edea not Cid. Now at the end of the sorceress war is when we assume Garden got built. Now we know Laguna is Squall's father and Squall during the memories of the orphanage is placed aged 7 by the game. I believe there was a line about Squall joining the Garden after Quistis. This implies that the reason they remember Edea at the orphanage and not Cid is because Cid during this time had established Garden. Now with some deduction based on the fact that Laguna ends the Sorceress war and Squall is 7 during the Orphanage flashback we have 7 years during which Garden was established. Now, Edea gets given Ultimecia's powers at this point making her a sorceress. At around this time, Squall and any other remaining orphans at the orphanage are moved to Garden. The Orphanage is then abandoned for some reason. This implies Edea disappeared, as to who Edea's SeeDs (the white SeeDs) are or how their numbers are replenished as they get older is a mystery. The fact that they are welcome in Balamb Garden and that Cid knows of their existence and how to contact them, means I would say they're selected from candidates by Cid personally from across the 3 Gardens as to why they're considered Edea's SeeD I'm not sure of but until Edea appeared in Timber, she had never once cropped up in the news ect as a sorceress. I would say she was protected/imprisoned by the White SeeD on Cid's orders to ensure she couldn't cause trouble. The reason for his imprisoning/protecting Edea is simple she hadn't caused trouble at that point in time and being he was in love with her still I think it would've been hard for him to order her execution.