R=U?

[Besimudo]

Laguna indicates that he has much to tell Squall about when the mission is all over... Then he said something along the lines of "if you dont wish to hear about it, thats ok".

It seems that Squall, rejected the offer to hear what he (as the player) had already deduced. This is one interesting feature of Squall, it is generally the player who reacts to his internal "chaos", this is very contrasting compared with Clouds literal breakdown, when squall "broke down" he told the player and the sleeping angel (Rinoa). Cloud put on a public demonstration for the team... and afterwards his character was deminished (appeared weak).

Besides, when I saw Laguna standing in the presidential palace, I reacted similarly with Squall “what is this idiot doing here”.

This is the universal form of the “leader” …He is naturally friends with everyone, yet the most important people suffer. This is followed in The Three Kingdoms with the Character of Liu Bei (I am sure some people have played Dynasty warriors or better still read the novels). Liu Bei (Xaunde) pledges fraternity to Guan Yu and Zhange fei… This is fine when they operate as warriors but when Liu bei becomes involved in expanding the kingdom of Shu he is forced to betray their oath and then Guan Yu is captured and killed. Shortly after Zhang fei learns of the death of his brother and goes on a rampage (resulting in death).

NOTE: that Laguna was also part of a trio, it seems that this theme is universal….yet again we see more parallels with higher literature.


P.S.Al' I made the assumption of Holland based on your native language... I though a patriotic Belgian would speak Flemmish.

[Rand Al'Tor]

Huh? Besi, did you mistake threads perhaps? It was the other thread where we were discussing Laguna's abbandoning of Squall I thought...

Anyway, Cloud's ' breaking down' is one of my favourite parts of VII. Cloud fears his past. And he cannot overcome that fear, even after Sephiroth forced him to confront part of it. He always flees, first in the personality of Zack, then in fatalism as he hands the Black Materia to Sephiroth, then in the unsconsciousness of Mako-poisoning. Despite all evidence to the contrary, the Cloud up to a good half of Disc 2 is a coward. He even almost gives up on following Sephiroth because he fears what he might learn of himself.

It is AFTER he lets the mask slip, after he faces his past, and discovers that it wasn't quite as shameful as he thought it was, that Cloud starts to become ' the genuine article' Everything uptill then is an act. In this, he also lied to his friends as well as himself. And it is only fair that they know that the person they saw up till then wasn't Cloud, it was Zack. Despite the subdued tone, the scene where Cloud reveals all to them isn't Cloud's moment of defeat, it's his moment of triumph.

Oh, and regarding my origins. Flemmish is a form of Dutch. (a valid form of Dutch BTW, many words exclusively used in Flanders ARE in the official wordlist) Sort of like American English and English English, though a bit closer.It's just that few enough people have heard of Dutch, let alone Flemmish, so I usually keep it simple. However, despite my jesting Holland-Belgium scene I'm no patriot by any stretch of the imagination. My loyalty is with causes and individual people, not with nations or states.

[Besimudo]

...SO it was.