Jenova

[Squall of SeeD]

No, Holy could stop Meteor. Holy's sole use is not to protect the Planet - it's to counter Meteor. Holy destroyed Meteor; the Lifestream merely protected the Planet from the battle. If the Lifestream had not interfered, Holy would have still destroyed Meteor - just very probably would have destroyed the Planet as well.

Except Holy sort of failed. It wasn't destroying Meteor:

It's too late for Holy.
Meteor is approaching the Planet.
Holy is having the opposite effect.

Holy was white-blue when it arrived. It dispersed the tornadoes that Meteor had spawned off as it collided with Meteor, yes, but after a few seconds, where it was touching Meteor then turned red (the same color as Meteor) parted open, allowing Meteor through, and then an even more violent storm kicked up (refer to the following images):

Holy Arrives.
Holy is altered by Meteor, certainly not indicative of Holy neutralizing it when it is becoming like Meteor and not the other way around.
Holy parts, allowing Meteor through.

I'm not seeing the "Holy is winning" aspect of that. We see Holy losing to Meteor. It becoming Meteor's color does not suggest victory on Holy's part. We're told it was too late for Holy. We're told it was having the opposite effect. After it became Meteor's color, a more powerful storm than the ones that had been broken apart kicked up and began tearing Midgar apart. The Lifestream then arrived and as it collided with Meteor and Holy, we -- interestingly enough -- see Holy's original color return at the center of the conflict where Meteor was:

Linkage. How can you determine that these things are unrelated?

1-4: you have no evidence to support that fact that Cloud was unsure of himself before getting the Jenova cell injections because of Jenova. A FAR more likely possibility is that he was unsure of himself because he was picked on and ostracized as a child.

Again, what are you talking about? I haven't said a damned thing about JENOVA influencing anyone who didn't have its Cells within them. Yes, Cloud lacked self-confidence because he had been ostracized. The game makes that extremely obvious.

Where are you getting otherwise?

5: this one's based PURELY on assumption. Cloud didn't have what it takes physically to enter SOLDIER - plain and simple.

Funny then that they only ever focus on his mental weakness and show that the difference between himself and Zack was their mentality and perception of theirselves. Going back again to Cloud's statement of "But weak people... like me, get lost in the whole thing," what else could he be referring to but his mind when he speaks of getting lost? He got all kinds of lost in his mind.

6. What member of SOLDIER is this?

This is where paying attention comes in handy, as I've already said which member of SOLDIER this is three times on the first Page of this Thread: The Junon Accessory Shop owner.

7. Wow - again, purely conjecture. Some people just don't accept the Jenova cell injections - the cells just don't mix.

You would argue that a written work would contain the greatest amount of unintentional coincedences in history? Zack accepts himself. He doesn't go bat smurfing loco due to JENOVA Cell injections or Mako infusion. It's also said that he doesn't have a reaction to JENOVA's Cells. Another member of SOLDIER -- who would have undergone the same procedures -- clearly came out of it just fine, as well, and when the call of the Reunion is sent out, he shows only faint signs of being affected by it, rather suggestive of a lack of reaction. Lucrecia, another individual injected with JENOVA's Cells has been seeing Sephiroth in her dreams of late, that being only a faint response to the call of the Reunion. Like Zack, she's accepted herself, despite despising herself.

Unlike either Lucrecia or Zack, Cloud didn't accept himself, had a reaction to JENOVA's Cells, and was manipulated into going to the Reunion, as well as handing over the Black Materia against his will at the Temple of the Ancients, and was nearly forced to kill Aerith. However, after accepting himself, he easily purges himself of the influence of those/the one who had been previously manipulating him.

You're going to argue that all of those incidents of either not having a reaction to JENOVA's Cells or being able to resist control were just one big coincedence that had acceptance of self as a common thread, despite them occurring within a written work in which such things had to be thought up and placed within the story?

Some of the clones had minor reactions, but nothing substantial.

Zack is the only one said to have not had a reaction. Interestingly enough, he's the only one that was a member of SOLDIER.

It's just game mechanics - the story needed Cloud to have a reaction, and it's justified by the genetics possibilities.

Whereas his self-doubt contributed nothing?

8. ...so? There's nothing after Cloud "accepted" who he was to justify whether or not he could still be controlled by the Jenova cells. I'd agree he'd be less able ot be manipulated, purely based on the psychology. Jenova easily took Sephiroth because he went insane and his mind was fried; it stands to reason that if the person has a more stable mind, they would be less likely to be fooled. This has nothing to do with basing the Jenova cell reactions on psychological conditions.

Did you not actually see the ending of the game?:

(He raises one fist.)

Cloud
"Let's go home proud."

(He lowers it. The others all rise wearily and begin to trudge back to the
exit of the crater. Cloud and Tifa walk together for a few steps when the
screen flashes white. Cloud stops in his tracks. Tifa turns.)

Tifa
"What happened?"

(He lowers his head.)

Cloud
"......I feel it..."

Tifa
"What......"

(The screen goes white, longer this time, with the sound of rushing wind.
Cloud shakes his head.)

Cloud
"He is still...... here."

(Again. Cloud falls to the ground, clutching his head, and we see Cloud's
double, white and ghostlike, fall with him.)

Cloud
"Still......"

(The screen goes white.)

Tifa
"Cloud!?"

(It fades. Cloud is in tremors, still tightly clutching his head.)

Cloud
"He's... laughing..."

(Cloud's double removes from his body and spins off into the distance. The screen goes white once more.)

This scene is followed by the mental battle between Cloud and Sephiroth's form, a battle which Cloud wins extremely easily. In fact, it's a storyline battle that can't even be lost.

9-10: Jenova nor Sephiroth ever tried to take over Cloud again, because they didn't have to - they had the Black Materia, Sephiroth viewed Cloud was a weak, failure clone. They didn't need him anymore.

Again, you didn't see the ending? Even if one were to argue that it was simply Cloud purging his mind of JENOVA/Sephiroth's influence and not an actual battle, then he has still grown strong mentally after his acceptance of himself. Either way, JENOVA/Sephiroth's control/influence was easily broken at that point.

Every point you have can be countered by one that's not based purely on speculation and backed up by in-game facts.

Where are these in-game facts, as everyone of the points you just presented either required twisting what I said into something it wasn't or ignoring in-game facts and events, while also assuming that the writers didn't know what the hell they were doing and created one of the largest unintentional coincedences in literary history?

By the way, I find it interesting/annoying that you conveniently ignored this:

I write. I'm a writer. When I throw something into a story, it's there for a reason. I imagine this to be the case with most writers, especially those on a professional level. If this story had subtleties to the extent of Aerith's age being 22 while there are 22 paths constituting the Sephiroth, or Sephiroth's right arm in the Safer Sephiroth battle being obviously composed of JENOVA (an obvious play on "The right hand of God"), or JENOVA meaning "New God," or Tifa's name being derived from "Tifaret," the central node on the Sephiroth, which represents beauty, love and balance (she's pretty, she loves Cloud, and it is she who guides Cloud back to himself in the Lifestream and restores balance to his mind), then I would think something as blatant as "But weak people like me get lost in the whole thing..." or "Hey, I'm going to be in denial about who I really am and be controlled, then I'm going to accept who I am and admit it to myself and those I accidentally deceived, then be strong enough to not be controlled" is going to have some meaning.

By the way, you still have yet to offer an explanation aside from the one I have offered for why we see varying degrees of manipulation displayed in those with JENOVA's Cells (Lucrecia and the Junon Accessory Shop owner show only very faint signs, whereas the black-cloaked folks are completely subverted to JENOVA/Sephiroth's will, and Cloud -- who had the benefit of hanging around Zack, one who's will and personality hadn't been shattered -- is somewhere in the middle until becoming like Lucrecia and the Junon Accessory Shop owner). That we see varying degrees of effects tells us automatically that there's got to be more to it than your argument that the Cells either take or they don't, as that suggests an all-or-nothing status where either complete control is present or no control is present, something which is not shown to be the case.

So please respond to these two things if you would. I'm more interested in your response to these previous two paragraphs than I am to the rest in all honesty.

I, personally, believe that Sephiroth thought that the Planet could survive tapping into the Lifestream to such an extent.

How?:

Sephiroth
"By merging with all the energy of the Planet, I will become a
new life forn, a new existence."
"Melding with the Planet... I will cease to exist as I am now."
"Only to be reborn as a 'God' to rule over every soul."

I see little concern or care for the Planet's survival there.

Remember, he thought he was Cetra.

Assuming that he still believed that -- and I can't see why he would, since that little dip in the Lifestream in which the knowledge and wisdom of the Ancients was absorbed should have revealed that JENOVA wasn't a Cetra; for that matter, the Sephiroth forms in the present never claim to be a Cetra, nor does the Sephiroth form in the Temple of the Ancients contest Aerith's claim that Sephiroth wasn't an Ancient -- then he viewed himself as greater than they and didn't care about their ideals, anyway:

Cloud
"The Promised Land?"
"No, but..."

Aerith
"Sephiroth is different. He's not an Ancient."

Cloud
"He shouldn't be able to find the Promised Land."

(The screen flashes white. When it fades, we see Sephiroth standing at the
edge of the pit.)

Sephiroth
"...Ah, but I have."

(He floats up, over the pit.)

Sephiroth
"I'm far superior to the Ancients."
"I became a traveler of the Lifestream and gained the knowledge
and wisdom of the Ancients."
"I also gained the knowledge and wisdom of those after the
extinction of the Ancients."
"And soon, I will create the future."