Midgar Blues ♥

I’m not good with Japanese, but these lines sound VERY similar!  

It would be interesting to know if there are others, did you spot any?

FFVII Remake vs Crisis Core comparison

Aerith & Marlene: a special bond

Marlene Wallace is a little sweet 4 years old child and Barret’s adoptive daughter.

The strange interaction between Aerith and Marlene in Chapter 12 of the Remake raises the mistery: what kind of information did Aerith share with this kid? And, more importantly, why?

This scene brought up a longstanding question too: is Marlene a Cetra?

I don't presume to have an answer! I have no idea about what the devs have in mind for this character. With this post I'll just try to highlight all the elements that showed the bond between Aerith and Marlene in the FFVII compilation.

Key Art

Since the early concepts of this character, Marlene’s been represented holding a flower. Nothing really strange, if it were not for the fact that flowers in Midgar are true rarety and are mainly related to Aerith.

Marlene is in Barret’s key art. The picture is more or less the same both for the OG and for the Remake and it depicts Barret and Marlene staring at the flower bed in Aerith’s church, even if this specific scene has never been showed in any entry. 

Final Fantasy VII

In the OG Tifa asked Aerith to rescue Marlene from Seventh Heaven before the collapse of Sector 7 plate. They spent a relatively short time together, but Marlene became immediately very fond of Aerith and never forgot her.

The player could find again Marlene with Elmyra, while Aerith had been kidnapped by Shinra. Marlene told Cloud that Aerith liked him and she got really angry if he didn't answer in an interested way (”Stupid!”). But if he answered in a positive way she was also aware that it was the kind of information that could hurt Tifa (”I won’t tell Tifa”).

If the player had the date with Aerith, Marlene recognized her voice and, later, Cait Sith said she got really sad when she came to know about Aerith's death.

Marlene appeared again at the very end of the game where she perceived Aerith's presence when the Lifestream started to erupt from the surface of earth to reject Meteor.

On the Way to a Smile

Marlene appears also in the novel On the way to a smile, especially in Case of Tifa. She is described to be a very sensitive and mature child:

It was Marlene who noticed the changes in Cloud (...) Marlene was an observant child, sensitive to the grown-ups’ moods.

Maybe Marlene thought Tifa wasn’t listening when she said in a small, lonely voice, “Cloud and Tifa aren’t getting along”.

This would mean nothing if taken out of context but I think it fits the continuity of her character development until Advent Children, the entry where she is openly depicted to be a little copy of Aerith.

Advent Children

At the beginning of the movie Marlene is the narrator that resumes the events concerning Meteorfall, the Lifestream and the battle against Sephiroth. 

She has the same hairstyle and pink ribbon as Aerith, and her white outfit slightly recalls Aerith’s dress from Crisis Core. Her skirt and socks are decorated with floral motives. 

She behaves like Aerith: she is blunt, encouraging and she always sais what she thinks

Her room is full of interesting elements:

There’s a pink sleeveless dress in a corner

There are various pictures of flowers hung on the walls and a vase of Aerith’s flowers on the windowsill

There’s a picture of a church and the photo of the flower bed in Aerith’s church  

(Yes I know, the quality of the images is really bad. I’m looking forward for the 4K version of the movie in June).

Marlene has sort of a healing role toward Denzel, since she takes care of him when he has Gestigma symptoms (in the movie and the novels) and she is the only child who has no Geostigma. The Remnants seem to understand that she’s different from the other children and they keep a close watch on her

When she arrives at the church she tends the flowers like Aerith used to

When Loz’s going to kill Tifa she distracts him throwing a globe of Materia that looks exactly like White materia

She senses where Cloud has Geostigma (he has a puzzled look when she askes if it hurts, as if she wasn’t supposed to know it)

When Aerith intervenes in the battle she can feel her presence (in the Japanese version she sais お姉ちゃん, which means “older sister”).

Final Fantasy VII Remake

In the Remake Aerith meets Marlene in the same way as she did in the OG but this time Tseng finds them immediately at Seventh Heaven (I’m not sure if this is meant to be a relevant change or just a revised and more realistic way to show the scene, all we know is that the Whispers didn’t intervene). Despite this change something “strange” happens between them anyway...

Marlene, who was crying frightened, immediately calms down and hugs Aerith again. She notices that she smells like “their flower”, to which Aerith answers:

as if she already knew they won’t spend much time together in the future. 

Before Barret and the others leave to save Aerith from Shinra, Marlene tries to warn her father saying he should help Aerith but she can’t explain the real reason. 

And dulcis in fundo, at the end of the game, Marlene, once again, can perceive the “presence” of someone. In this case it’s her daddy calling her name.

And that’s all for now! 

I have no idea how the story is going to develop in the next entries of the Remake, but maybe it is not so wrong to think that this young character will have a more important role in the future!

"Angeal, stay back. I'll take Sephiroth alone."

"Uhhhh yeah, Genesis so you don't want to do that because that sword that he's holding is bad news you see we basically went into this spooky temple and there were a bunch of statues and monsters and purple shit and everyone started talking like a lunatic and gaslighting the hell out of me and Seph and I kept dreaming about our moms and he was acting like a huge asshole and we had a slapfight and anyway the sword is cursed but not cursed but maybe kind of cursed and Seph went apeshit getting it and had to undergo all these bullshit trials with ghosts because the sword was kinda-sorta-maybe forged from an alien meteorite and has some freaky-deeky shit behind it and Seph was meant to have it or whatever but you really don't want to fight him because I remember what a nightmare that was and I'm not going near that sword ever again be glad I never even brought up Alissa because I'm pretty sure Seph would go into convulsions and does anyone even REMEMBER what happened to Bachman but seriously Genesis don't fuck around with Seph while he's using that sword you're gonna get--"

Talk about a coincidence!

(Previous post here)

Aerith's key art

Since the release of the original FF7 each main character's had a dedicated key art.

They mostly remained unaltered in the Remake because their symbolism applies to both entries, while Aerith and Yuffie's changed in order to fit the themes of this new installment.

In the first picture Aerith was looking at the Highwind, but in the new one the airship's disappeared...why?

In the OG she wished she could fly on the Highwind one day. Probably this key art was meant to give to the player the illusion she could fulfill her dream and continue the adventure with her companions, in order to make more painful and unexpected her destiny.

I think her Remake key art has a totally different meaning. The central point of this picture is not the absence of the airship but the fact that she's staring at the blue sky:

The last line of the Remake makes more sense in Japanese

The sky, I hate it.

It links up better with the scene of Crisis Core where she perceived Zack's death while it started raining.

But maybe this time there's a chance...

This new picture has also a parallel with Tifa's key art: both staring at the sky, both relating it to a special person❤️

What a nice coincidence!

Final Fantasy 7 Original VS Remake - Key art

lmao

AERITH & TIFA CG IN BRAVE EXVIUS

Advent Children Complete | Last Order

Zack and Cloud / Cloud and Denzel

Is Sonon really dead?

Yuffie’s mission in Midgar ended unsuccessfully. Shinra destroyed the base of her allies in Sector 7, she couldn’t get hold of the Ultimate Materia and, most importantly, Sonon died in order to save her.

His death gives a sense of closure to this newly introduced character. Although being quite short, the DLC is full of clever parallels between Yuffie and Melphie, Sonon's younger sister who got killed in front of his eyes during the Wutai war. He failed to save Melphie back then, but he can save Yuffie now.

But the big question is: is Sonon really dead?

The OST playing during the death scene is Seeing Melphie again. After getting stabbed, he has a vision of his little sister (a very touching moment tied to FFVII theme of reunion in the afterlife) accompanied by a bitterweet piano melody, that gets always softer until his last breath. But just when Nero seems to finish Sonon off, instead of mercilessly swallowing him into the darkness, he gently picks him up while the music digresses in an ominious and mysterious tone, hinting that his role may be not over yet.

But what could Nero want from Sonon?

I think the answer may be deduced diggin a bit into Dirge of Cerberus lore.

There's a not very well known entry related to the main DoC game (especially by the western audience since it had been released only in Japan and for a very short period of time): Dirge of Cerberus Multiplayer on-line. While some of the missions were later included in the international release of DoC, the plot of this game got lost despite its importance for the full understanding of the Deepground dynamics.

Here is a link for an excellent article from thelifestream.net that tries to keep a record of this expired entry, and here's a playlist of cutscenes from the game with English subtitles that helps understanding the main plot (btw, a great YT channel where you can also find localized playthroughs of rarities like DoC Lost Episode and Before Crisis).

A quick summary about Deepground and the Multiplayer game.

Deepground is a top secret facility created by President Shinra and located beneath the slums (remember that underground lab where Cloud, Barret and Tifa went to save Wedge? That's Deepground) where troopers and SOLDIERs - but also unaware civilians - endure severe experimentations that push their bodies and minds to the limit, aiming to create ruthless SOLDIERs with no moral boundaries. The elite DG SOLDIERs are known as Tsviets, like Weiss, Nero, Argento, Shelke, Rosso and Azul. To avoid any rebellion each candidate and Tsviet has a restriction chip implanted in their brain controlled by four Restrictors loyal to President Shinra. This mechanism is particoularly useful to control those Tsviets who don't make a distinction between allies and enemies.

Because of this the Tsviets started to secretly plot against Shinra until they finally understood how to cheat the system. Shelke and Argento found a way to implant a non-working chip in a candidate, so that they could kill the Restrictors. The protagonist of DoC Multiplayer is indeed this candidate (gender and name chosen by the player). Thanks to her special abilities Shelke tricked the candidate into seeing a supporting partner, Usher, who helped them into ranking as a Tsviet, and most importantly she instilled the hatred towards the Restrictors giving to the candidate false memories of a little sister brutally killed by one of them. In the end the candidate managed to kill one of the Restrictors but got stabbed as well. This is the final dialogue of the game:

Weiss: Can this one still be of any use?

Shelke: Negative. The prolonged SND [Synaptic Net Dive] has rendered most of the brain inaccessible. It's only a matter of time before it breaks down completely.

Rosso: Really? After all that hard work. What a shame.

Weiss: Then hurry up and find a suitable replacement. After all no one knows what the Restrictors really look like.

Azul: So we have to find another one? This is becoming frustrating.

Weiss: It can't be helped. Only one out of hundreds can make it this far.

Rosso: Ordinary humans simply aren't as strong as we are.

Weiss: Precisely.

Shelke: Well, it's actually quite simple. With the help of the HJ Virus I am able to hack into Patricia [computer system] and bypass security. Then all that's needed is to pick a suitable subject before it's implanted with the chip.

Weiss: Shelke, find a new one quickly.

The devs had never provided any time reference for the Multiplayer story but now, with Intergrade, we know for sure that the Tsviets are still under Shinra's control when Yuffie and Sonon met Nero on December 12, and, while the President will be killed the next night, it seems clear that Scarlet is the one who will take full control of Deepground until her defeat the next month.

Conclusion

My theory is that Sonon could be the perfect person to replace the Tsviet-candidate and the dead Restrictor, so that Weiss and the gang can pursure their plan of rebellion gainst Shinra:

Unlike many soldiers Sonon has proved to be an extremely strong and capable fighter standing up to Nero.

He has the right motivation as he seeks revenge against Shinra - especially Scarlet - for the death of his younger sister, which Shelke could further manipulate.

Unlike any other Deepground candidate, he has no working restriction chip implanted.

Sure, one could argue that Nero severely wounded him, but the game clearly reminded us before the battle that Nero can easily disintegrate the bodies of his victims, while he reserves a different treatment to this particoular character. And, by the way, this wouldn't even be the first time a Tsviet pretends to kill someone as Shelke did the same with the Tsviet-candidate. As far as I know the main DoC game never explained how the Tsviets overpowered the remaining Restrictors, who replaced the Tsviet-candidate or what happened to Argento - who isn't part of the DoC cast. Sonon might be the missing piece of this sub-plot that may lead to new secondary arcs that could tie a bit more Deepground to the main FFVII story.

Parallels