ok, I have had so many people try to expain this to me, but I have never really understood the whole Jenova thing. What is Jenova? How did Jenova get here? Why did Jenova come here? Whats her deal? Plz!! I need help (yes, I know I'm a retard for not knowing this)!
Oooooooo, I love these questions. Jenova is the reason behind all of the plot. You're in for a long read.
Jenova is an alien, a viral life-form, that can take any shape it wants. Jenova is no specific 'he' or 'she' but rather Jenova is most firmly an 'it'. The alien being, never before encountered, has powers that aren't human, of which I'll come back to later. A notable aspect of Jenova is that if any cells are seperated from the main mass will eventually come back to the body. Whereas humans freely shed millions of skin cells by rubbing an eyelid, Jenova does no such thing. Quite a curiosity. It also has complete control over every individula cell, thus why all the cells eventually come back together when seperated-Jenova is actually pulling itself back together again. Jenova is also a very resiliant creature, one that, for some reason, can survive the absolute zero temperature of outer space, possibly by using the aformentioned powers.
Next, Jenova came here via space travel. However it skipped the expected space-ship arrival and came to the planet without anything else than itself. Interesting in the least. The northern crater in the game is actually the landing site of Jenova's arrival. Any references to this reasoning is quite vague in the least. It's unsure as to exactly why Jenova came here, but the intention was not peaceful in the least. When it came here, it took the shape of the the indeginous species and played the part of a benevolent being for a time. Eventually it started to act, and showed the people specters of lost loved ones, displaying it's supposed power over the dead. In reality, it was manipulating the knowledge of previous lives memories immersed within the lifestream. Using the knowledge, it created illusions, weaking the moral and confusing the populace. Then it began to spread a virus amongst the humans, who at that time were called the Cetra. It could have done this easily by spreading it's own cells throughout the lifestream and then making it's own cells attack the host. If you've seen FF7:AC, then this would be known as Geostigma. This virus killed nearly all the Cetra, the guardians and people of the planet, in the most literal sense. With the planet defenseless, and weakend by the crater, Jenova could now take over the planet for whatever purposes it had in mind. However, the remaining Cetra managed to to kill Jenova. However, the Cetra race was all but extinct, and it never grew back to it's former numbers. At the same time the planet was creating a defense for itself, the Weapons, but the Cetra managed to kill Jenova before the Weapons were ever released.
Jenova was dumped back in the crater, or possibly some chasm, where it lay, dormant, for 2,000 years. Then, some archeologists found it in a dig. Mistooken to be one of the members of the lost Cetra race, the powerful company, Shin Ra, sought to use it's DNA to fashion a living Cetra, to an extent, with the Cetra's powers of finding the Promised Land. The Promised Land was of great interest for it was thought that Mako would be abundant there. To do this, they first injected members of SOLDIER with Jenova cells, not only to see what effect it would have, but to get the Promised Land sensing ability. It didn't work, so an unborn infant was directly injected with Jenova cells, to work in the alien cells with human DNA--truly fusing the two speices together. This is the creation of Sephiroth.
The rest you undoubtably know, yet I'll do a quick run-through for topics' sake. Sephiroth did not turn out as they expected, still ignorant of the fact that Jenova was not an Ancient/Cetra. When Sephiroth found out that Shin Ra was creating monsters using humans, he snapped, finding out that he was created in a similar way, by the fact that his mother's name and the monsters name in the room of the reactor were the same. The documents in the Shin Ra basement confirmed this. Then Sephiroth went truly mad, horrified and angered that he was the 'rightful heir' to the planet and that these 'weaklings' had done so much harm to his mother and himself.
Now, since Jenova was dead, it had no way of ever controlling it's body, obviously. But Sephiroth, who was half-Jenova, if you will, could manipulate the cells of Jenova's body, a trademark of the spieces it seems. So in all the times you see Jenova it is not really Jenova--it's Sephiroth controlling Jenova's cells. A madman fighting with the puppet of his 'mother's' dead body--which brings up the puppet question, but that's another story for another time.
As Sephiroth has control over all Jenova cells, that also means that he has control of the cells that have been injected into countless, SOLDIER's, clones, and human experiments. Now this is where Cloud comes in. As he was also experimented on, Jenova cells were also injected into him as well. Sephiroth was able to manipulate the cells to his advantage, mainly in the memory part of the brain. Now, I'll get back to the power of Jenova. These cells have an adverse affect on human cells, changing normal human cells into something more like Jenova cells. This grants humans some limited powers of Jenova, thus the reason for flying, walking on ceilings, and being unnaturally strong. However, the Mako-immersion process that accompanies the injection of Jenova cells on the experiments has a dramatic effect. The Mako--lifestream--is filled with the memories of the lives of people long dead. When immersed in Mako that spells bad news--for thousnands of memories of unknown lives is forced into a person's mind, and if that person, like Cloud, wasn't particularly fond of their life, it would be easy to get lost in the flood of memories and literally lose ones own identity. This is what happend to all the previous Sephiroth clones. However, Cloud, in some fashion, it is never really explained, manages to get hold of the identity of his deceased friend Zack, and thus thinks he is Zack but with his own past. The two do not mix together very well, and I often refer to this confused Cloud as Zoud (it was better than 'Clack') to keep them straight. I could go on but that's going far off topic and I belive I'll leav it at that.
Be sure to hang around though, as Ryushikaze will have something to say, I'm sure.
Wow, thats a lot but thanx!
Thanx a lot Dragon Mage.
I didnt know most of that stuff either.
Ive just realised my true ignorance about the plot in FF7.
That explains stuff alot better but what about the whole one-wined thing? did they ever mention that in FF7? it isn't portrayed in it I want to know more about that.
You mean Sephiroth's final form music being called "One-Winged Angel"? It's kind of a pun on the fact that "Safer" Sephiroth is a mistranslation of Seraph Sephiroth. Seraphim (s. Seraph) are the highest order of Angel according to the Bible. Apparently that have three sets of wings. The fact that Sephiroth is missing wings signifies his fall and also his evilness.
Sigless
I don't belive Safer is a mistranslation. I'm sure I heard that 'Sepher' (or some variant) has to do with the Book of Numbers, but I don't remember for sure right now.
"Safer" was a mistransliteration of Sepher. Sepher Sephiroth means "Book of Numbers" or "Book of Emanations" and is the title of a Kabbalistic work written by the mystic Aleister Crowley in 1911.
"Seraph" is also wrong.
A very good explanation Dragon Mage, but the only thing that i think is wrong, is about the Geostigma part. Before FFVII, Jenova never spread it's cells in the Lifestream and never created Geostigma. This only happens in the end of FFVII. If Jenova did this, then why Sephiroth didn't use the corrupted Lifestream during FFVII? Because it didn't exist yet.
The virus that Jenova created, was just a physical one, and didn't have anything to do with the Lifestream.
But your explanation is very good.
Jenova, was the one who controlled everything, It was so clever - she was very rarely her self, she managed to manipulate things behind the seams.
Time and Timeagain.
Jenova is not an alien.
Even though she was really a puppet controlled by Sephiroth?
And c'mon now, when your personal appearance is something akin to
*,
you know you've got to be an alien of some sort.
*For an example.
You're welcome!!!
Ah, well, I didn't mean literally Geostigma, but it functioned in basically the same way. This was done to effectively infect everyone and thus to kill them. It wasn't Geostigma per se, but it was a virus spread thoughout the populace to kill them via means of spreading its cells through the lifestream. Geostigma was effectively doing the same thing, however there was no mind behind the virus to purposley infect people. That's why some people were being infected and others weren't. Sephiroth never used the lifestream in such a manner because he would have to re-corrupt it. You see, Jenova, after wiping out the humans, 'recalled' its cells, or basically it just regrouped back together again. Thus, the lifestream was uncorrupted.A very good explanation Dragon Mage, but the only thing that i think is wrong, is about the Geostigma part. Before FFVII, Jenova never spread it's cells in the Lifestream and never created Geostigma. This only happens in the end of FFVII. If Jenova did this, then why Sephiroth didn't use the corrupted Lifestream during FFVII? Because it didn't exist yet.
The virus that Jenova created, was just a physical one, and didn't have anything to do with the Lifestream.
But your explanation is very good.
And true, it may not have anything to do with the lifestream, but it would be the quickest and most effective method, whereas a physical virus would have a chance to be killed by the hosts immune system and possibly magical means. Why take the chance?
(thanks The Crystal!)
The only real issues I see are A: "Coming here alone". If we take Sephy's words in AC, Jenova may have grabbed a planetchunk and slammed it into Gaia, since Sephy speaks of doing the same think to Gaia and another planet and intimates that Jenova did it too.
and
B: The "When it came here, it took the shape of the the indeginous species and played the part of a benevolent being for a time. Eventually it started to act, and showed the people specters of lost loved ones, displaying it's supposed power over the dead." This is entirely possible, but Ilfana's phrasing suggests that it did not play benevolent, and went right to the whole "playing the part of dead loved ones" schtick.
Otherwise, not bad.
Thank you.
As a parody on Dragon Mage's explanation, I'll say Jenova is Jenova. You can't define it.
But, I don't wanna make a big deal of this, (not a big deal as Dragon Mage, as clear as he can be(By the way, man, my eyes were bleeding by the time I finished reading that...)) but I think Jenova was something
Square pulled outta their @$$es for an excuse to logically create Sephiroth and Cloud, not to mention the whole plot of Reunion. (And another twist to Zack's character) It didn't even occur to me that Jenova was even an alien to begin with. I stuck with my original story way back when. Jenova was Jenova. It was just another enemy to kill. As I grew older and wiser, I think about FFVII through a whole new sense of logic. Yes, I totally agree with you, Dragon Mage, but I like my version too. It's a helluva lot shorter.
Lol, jk. Anyhow, live long and prosper, don't eat yellow snow and stay the HELL away from that beeping red thing!
I AM MasterX! I am the man who respects himself FAR more than others. I am the person to question when someone is constantly forced to commit crimes. I am the bastard that allows forum law-breaking to occur in front of his very nose.
I am what I am.
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