Damn those world saving Shinra! Someone stop them!

[Loony BoB]

From what I understood - and it's been a while so I could absolutely be wrong - the huge materia was not being used as an explosive device but as a device to power the rocket itself. Once in space, the rocket had no additional need for power as it was already traveling at speed and in the right direction. The materia was being used for lift-off.

This is backed up by the massive explosion when the rocket hits the meteor, which means there was some kind of explosive device within the rocket powerful enough to obliterate it to pieces. However, the meteor itself being magical meant that it could regather it's pieces and thus carry on it's course.

If people had some theory that the huge materia itself was an explosive device, then surely the train crashing into Corel would have killed everyone in the area?

[Hollycat]

but that big materia wasnt rigged to explode, it was just being moved. also, I think I read that they were planning n using the power of the materia to blow up meteor, thats why scarlet was so excited by the huge materia

[Skyblade]

If I recall correctly, wasn't Huge Materia the original ammunition of the Sister Ray, before it was moved to Midgar and powered by the Mako Reactors? And that Scarlet was searching for more ammo for it when she was hunting down Huge Materia all over the world even in Disc 1.

Which, in turn, means there are at least six pieces of Huge Materia, as the Sister Ray fires two at Sapphire Weapon.

[Loony BoB]

If I recall correctly, wasn't Huge Materia the original ammunition of the Sister Ray, before it was moved to Midgar and powered by the Mako Reactors? And that Scarlet was searching for more ammo for it when she was hunting down Huge Materia all over the world even in Disc 1.

Which, in turn, means there are at least six pieces of Huge Materia, as the Sister Ray fires two at Sapphire Weapon.

Run by huge materia, not armed with huge materia. Huge materia are used as the power source, basically.

but that big materia wasnt rigged to explode, it was just being moved. also, I think I read that they were planning n using the power of the materia to blow up meteor, thats why scarlet was so excited by the huge materia

Given that there is a whopping huge explosion capable of (temporarily) obliterating Meteor despite the huge materia being completely removed, I don't see how that could happen if it was the materia itself that was the explosive. That's like saying if you remove the plutonium and uranium from an atomic bomb then it will still explode - it won't. It will just... crash into the ground, I guess? But yeah, the explosion is exactly the same with or without the huge materia so I believe it was just used to power the rocket, not to explode.

[Jiro]

I imagine the Huge Materia just made it a faster rocket. Explosive power is a bit increased if the thing is flying hella fast.

[Wolf Kanno]

The Huge Materia is stated to be used as an explosive on the Rocket. I can't imagine if was used as fuel for the Rocket cause Shin-Ra doesn't even know if the normal rocket with its own fuel source would work. It was meant to be a bomb and I wouldn't use the cutscene of its impact onto Meteor as proof one way or the other cause the developers didn't bother to make variations (most likely due to running out of time, money, and other resources) so they may have built it based on one variation. My guess, is the scenario they chose is if the player failed to obtain all of them cause frankly, trying to get the materia in the Rocket itself is a pain in the ass and I'm sure most people failed the first time.

Also, fighting a magical Meteor with normal explosives doesn't sound like it would work even on paper, fighting them a bomb made of pure concentrated magic on the other hand does. So I can't back up the notion its just to power the Rocket. Especially since the rocket still uses classic rocket propulsion devices and the Rocket is still capable of moving even after the materia has been rescued.

[Loony BoB]

Where was it stated? When I first saw this thread I tried to find anything that said it would be used in such a way and couldn't. Admittedly, though, it was a lengthy script and I did some skimming.

[Mercen-X]

It's neither stated as an explosive nor as fuel for the rocket. It's simply put that the Huge Materia will be launched at the Meteor with the rocket. But one can assume by such a statement that the Huge Materia is what was originally intended to impact with the meteor, not necessarily the rocket itself.

[Wolf Kanno]

Mercen X has it right, here's the script:

Rufus: Now then...... We're faced with two issues. 1: Destroy Meteor. 2: Remove the barrier around North Cave and defeat Sephiroth. Any ideas?

Heidegger: Gya haah hah hah! We already solved the first problem! Meteor will soon be smashed to bits! The plan has already been put in motion. Namely, to collect Huge Materia from each region.

Rufus: Well......

Scarlet: Huge Materia is a high density special type of materia made through a special compression process in Mako reactors. The energy extracted from it is 330 times the strength of normal materia. Ha, ha, ha! How about that!? We will gather all the Huge Materia together and ram it into Meteor. That will cause a huge explosion!! Reducing Meteor literally to bits.

Rufus: You're going to ram Meteor? Do you think we have the technology to do it?

Scarlet: Don't worry about that! More importantly, we've got to collect Huge Materia from each area.

Heidegger: We've already collected materia from Nibelheim. All that's left is "Corel" and "Fort Condor", I've already dispatched troops to Corel. Ghaa haah hah hah!

Its not a fuel, but it is not attached to a bomb, it is just implied the Huge Materia is the most important element cause it will have the destructive power to take down meteor, theoretically.

[Melissaur]

You know out of all the times I played and beat FFVII I never looked into this... I guess I was just having too much fun to realize this super plot hole xD

[Crop]

I recently got to disk three and I noticed that after the rocket hits meteor and doesn't work the whole party are like "Shinra's plan failed...erm maybe we shouldn't have got in their way so much". I found it pretty amusing.

Also, if you go to Kalm on disk three they're pretty much saying what I'm thinking, and just ripping into how Cloud and Co should have just got out the damn way and let Shinra get on with what they were doing for a while.

[Mercen-X]

FYI: If you fail at any point to obtain a Huge Materia before gathering the Huge Materia from the Rocket, the materia you get will be from somewhere else (i.e. Huge Materia from Corel, Huge Materia from Fort Condor, Huge Materia from Underwater Reactor), and even if you fail to get all three previous materias, you only get the one materia out of the rocket (which meaninglessly is always represented by the Support Materia colored crystal). So, I for one would assume that no matter which scenario plays out, the Shinra only manages to load the useless Support Huge Materia onto the Rocket and that's why if you fail to get it out, the materia has no effect on the explosion caused by the impact.

[Flying Arrow]

Thinking on this, it seems like the Huge Materia quest was conceived because the scenario writers needed something to extend the time between Cloud being discovered at Mideel and Cloud waking up after Mideel. Without it, Tifa and co. would have found him and immediately the place would be wrecked by a Weapon and Tifa and Cloud would end up in the Lifestream sequence (one of my favourites, actually). It would all be moving far too quick, especially after the huge Junon escape event, which itself already followed the mindsmurf Whirlwind Maze bit.

It also allows the player some nice free-roaming, since, up to this point, the game has been pretty consistently and briskly sending the player from new location to location. It's a sequence that triples as relaxing (actually it's depressing) downtime, an opportunity to re-visit areas of interest, and a throwback Crystal Quest. I used to like this scenario in my younger days, but now I think it's actually the weakest part of the game, mainly because the whole section feels a bit slapdash (obviously) - extending game time an extra 3-5 hours for its own sake. I've been tearing through Chrono Cross lately, and I find that it does kind of the same thing in parts. Although I do feel CC's Sleeping Dragons scenario is done a bit better (including a few a-ha moments because the game lets you explore so freely earlier on) it still kind of grinds the game's otherwise compelling narrative to a halt.

[Crop]

It also allows the player some nice free-roaming, since, up to this point, the game has been pretty consistently and briskly sending the player from new location to location. It's a sequence that triples as relaxing (actually it's depressing) downtime, an opportunity to re-visit areas of interest, and a throwback Crystal Quest. I used to like this scenario in my younger days, but now I think it's actually the weakest part of the game, mainly because the whole section feels a bit slapdash (obviously) - extending game time an extra 3-5 hours for its own sake.

I totally agree with this. In my latest playthrough I've found that the first disk has been my favourite by a very long shot. The following of Sephiroth from town to town just doesn't feel linear at all, every location has either something interesting or relevant to the plot, as well as being very fun to play. Places such as Junon (or when Sephiroth attacks on the boat to Costa Del Sol) I just never get bored of.
I remember when I first left Midgar and saw that I had barely scratched the surface of the game it just felt so epic.
Not to mention it has the infiltration of Shinra HQ, one of my favourite parts of any game ever.

Then again, what disk 2 lacks in plot it makes up for in cutscenes (the weapons attacking Shinra), epic moments (Rufus dying), and excellent locations (going back to Midgar, underwater reactor, Rocket launch part).

[Flying Arrow]

^ Yeah, Disc 1 is just great. The greatness carries over to most of disc 2, too. It's just that when Cid takes control, the game seems to feel a bit flat because the rushed-ness of the Huge Materia quest makes it seem like filler. The spotty motivation, as discussed in this thread, doesn't help either.

I mean it's not like the game sends you off to do something only tangentially related (thinking Oeilvert and Ipsen's Castle here), but it still doesn't fit in nearly as well as the rest of the game's scenarios do. But unlike FFIX's late-game quests, it also doesn't really show the player anything new - which was what was really great about the game's pacing to begin with. Sure you get to go to the underwater reactor and into space when Cloud comes back, but the Cid bits just have you doing another stupid Fort Condor fight and playing some crap mini-game in Corel. It's just a huge hiccup in the game's pace. It doesn't really pick up again until you visit Bugenhagen and take him to the Ancient City.

But yeah, tl;dr: The Huge Materia sequence must have been the last thing that was put in the game, because it really sticks out as being kinda thrown in as filler in almost every way.