JENOVA Cell Acceptance and Limit Sterilization

[Masamune·1600]

[...]though I ponder whether there might an even more simple explanation for the apparent lack of Limit Breaks in anyone other than AVALANCHE and the kid in Beginner's Hall. Perhaps monsters are simply dealt fatal blows before they can access a Limit Break? In Final Fantasy IX, we learn of Trance, which is the same thing as Limit Breaks. According to Kuja, anything that lives can utilize Trance, a response that can be triggered by emotion or -- most commonly -- by the host of Spirit Energy being in imminent danger of perishing.

Well, as regards the situation of humans that never received JENOVA cells, I agree with this theory. I would apply it to monsters as well, except that I believed they may have been cut off from Limits because of JENOVA-related Limit sterilization. Your next point leads me to revise this theory, though.

Further still, JENOVA Cells couldn't be present in the progeny of at least the monsters during the game's present, or we would be seeing a mass migration of creatures toward the Northern Crater for the Reunion. The monsters don't have JENOVA Cells in them during the present, nor JENOVA's Spirit Energy, so they should be fully capable of accessing Limit Breaks. Interestingly enough, they can access the special "Limit Break" in the game, All Lucky 7s, the same as party members can.

The matter of the Reunion was certainly problematic when I was developing the theory, although I didn't want to discard it based on a single issue. My previous explanation would have been that JENOVA had not been confined by the Cetra at the time when the original ancestors of the monsters were created, and that somehow those cells weren't subject to the "summoning." That proposal has problems, of course, but it could also simply be that monsters simply do not have the range of emotion necessary to express a Limit Break. Drawing on the All Lucky 7's example, it's certainly worth noting here that while monsters can enter the 'All Lucky's 7's status' and have all techniques elevated to 7777 damage, the actual Limit-like command is never utilized. This might suggest that while the gauge can (and perhaps even does) fill, monsters are unable to express this power in a Limit technique.

you guys have a lot of spare time. do you think you could but that a bit smaller so a lot more of the people online can bes arsed to read it?

My theory was basically that bodily acceptance of JENOVA cells induced a sort of 'Limit sterilization.' This would explain why neither Sephiroth nor Zack appeared to have a Limit Break technique in the Kalm flashback. I also suggested that Limit Breaks were a manifestation of the power of the Lifestream/Spirit Energy in organic beings. I then went about defending the theory against situations that might seem problematic.

Squall, after analyzing the essay, noted a simpler explanation for monsters never using Limits and made several other points that referenced different Final Fantasies. He also, citing examples from the game, suggested that JENOVA may have been critical in creating monsters, but that monsters have no JENOVA cells during the present.

Masamune, Im open to theories but personally I cant imagine the workings of the battle system having a bearing on the storyline. I think thats expecting too much from Square and I dont think the game is nearly that well thought out. With that in mind I cant see that theory as much more than, well...a theory. I mean I dont think average monsters usually have any bearing on the storyline in FF's except for slight points in IX and VIII but I dont think VII gave the monsters any role in the storyline.

Why not? Monsters have been explained by the story in FFVIII, FFIX, and FFX/X-2. In those cases, the information was explicitly stated. While I won't claim that any of my specualation is infallible, it seems likely that the monsters of FFVII may have descended from the transformed Cetra. A connection between battle physics and game world physics has also been growing stronger in recent titles. Again, I don't claim that the theory is perfect. However, it succeeds, I believe, in linking battle and world, and in explaining a few questions left unanswered by the game.