The world is in a weird place..

[Squall of SeeD]

I can't think of any other instance where a spell's visuals are used metaphorically, the things you described about the spell just enforce how immensely lame the spell actually is.

Sadly, yes.

Since at the climax of the spell the game clearly says "Earth" as a caption and shows your characters being scolded by the suns outer layer upon it, this spell DOES suggest that the planet is called Earth.

Yes, I meant to edit that sentence -- and then forgot -- to say the game's dialogue doesn't refer to the Planet as Earth like Final Fantasy IV's dialogue did with its Planet:

(Spoilers of Final Fantasy IV; don't highlight it unless you've played the game, or if you do so, do so at your own risk.)

(SPOILER)Cecil: ...Who are you?

Old Man: I am FuSoYa, guardian of the Lunarians.

Rosa: Lunarians?

FuSoYa: In eons past, a planet between Mars and Jupiter verged on
extinction. The survivors escaped by ship to the blue planet.

Cecil: The blue planet...? Our home?

FuSoYa: Yes, Earth. But because the people of Earth were still
evolving, the survivors created another moon, where they now sleep.

Edge: So these survivors became Lunarians, and they're still sleeping.

Sorry about that.

There is no way around how uninspired and thoughtless the implementation of this spell into Safer Sephiroth's aresonal was.

Agreed. Especially in light of the title "Gaia" having now been given to it.

[udsuna]

Well, the basic idea is that "Supernova" had nothing to do with reality. Sephi (or Jenova) had all kinds of REALLY warped illusion powers. Think of supernova as a psychological assault, moreso than a physical one. Intimidation coupled with sensory overload. I know if someone force-fed my mind the destruction of a solar-system, I'd be a little unnerved.
And there are quite a few spells with metaphorical images. Take the appearance of darkness/poison/etc. as floating images on the character. Unless you think being asleep includes real "zzz" or whatever else it might be images.

But, even if another place but the "north pole" was true north, the problem with the sphere hop would be the same. No matter how you turn a ball, going up the top of it sends you DOWN the other side, not instantly to the opposite side of the world. That was just lazyness.

The question that I always wanted answered- how long is meteor supposed to take getting there? You can leave the game RUNNING for a couple weeks, and still that damned rock won't land. I want a "you loose" ending sequence that involves the utter annihilation of the entire world.

[Necronopticous]

Well, the basic idea is that "Supernova" had nothing to do with reality. Sephi (or Jenova) had all kinds of REALLY warped illusion powers. Think of supernova as a psychological assault, moreso than a physical one. Intimidation coupled with sensory overload. I know if someone force-fed my mind the destruction of a solar-system, I'd be a little unnerved.

If you were going to psychologically assult someone by showing them these images you certainly wouldn't show them some random solar system that they have no idea of, and then again, I think it's pretty ludacris to say Supernova was psychological or that Sephiroth was making the team psychosomatically witness the destruction of a solar system. Even if he was, they are on their planet, they clearly cannot see any of the effects of this "psychological trip" except when the sun approached their planet so why would Sephiroth go through the trouble to fake the destruction of some other random planets? I think this explanation is an exercise in denial.

And there are quite a few spells with metaphorical images. Take the appearance of darkness/poison/etc. as floating images on the character. Unless you think being asleep includes real "zzz" or whatever else it might be images.

This is quite different. People also do not talk in textboxes and go inside each other's bodies when they form a party. These are symbols as opposed to what you're suggesting Supernova is, which is planted psychological hallucination.

[Squall of SeeD]

Unless it's scripted or an unavoidable aspect of the storyline, battle events aren't occurring in reality, anyway, so I wouldn't put too much thought into anything behind Supernova being an illusion or something to that affect. For an example of what I mean, Aerith can get shot forty times in a battle and survive, whereas Zack got shot probably that many times in a cutscene and died.

Battle physics don't equate to reality. The animation sequence of Supernova was more than likely more for the player's benefit than anything else.

[Del Murder]

Yeah, I just thought it looked cool. Remember, this is a game where people stand around during the heat of combat waiting for their speed gauge to charge, and hundreds of items are carried around and available at moment's notice. I think the map placement/supernova effects are just done that way for graphical reasons and shouldn't be taken seriously.

[LH]

Well, the basic idea is that "Supernova" had nothing to do with reality. Sephi (or Jenova) had all kinds of REALLY warped illusion powers. Think of supernova as a psychological assault, moreso than a physical one. Intimidation coupled with sensory overload. I know if someone force-fed my mind the destruction of a solar-system, I'd be a little unnerved.

That's a pretty good explanation there. After reading that, I imagine Supernova's imagery implanted in the party's head as some kind of bad acid trip.

[JayDee]

You have too much time on your hands.
It's not important the the world isn't perfect, honestly no one cares
:rolleyes2

[udsuna]

why would Sephiroth go through the trouble to fake the destruction of some other random planets? I think this explanation is an exercise in denial.

Call it the "translation effect" theory of telepathy. If I think a certain concept to another person, regardless of the language they speak, they would understand my message, because it's not the sounds that transmit, but the concept BEHIND the words that get recieved. So, we saw the solar system familiar to us, as did the characters see the solar system familiar to them. And final fantasy has done plenty of "automatically translated for your benefit" stuff, before. As far back as a foriegn language the characters learn in FF1.

And I wasn't comparing Supernova directly to the standard spells. I don't think they're related. But you said you couldn't think of spells where images are used metaphorically, I corrected that statement. They were seperate points, not to be clumped together.