Cloud’s Flashback In Kalm:

We'd seriously need a clear paraphrase to get over the misinterpretations about this song.

Guitar is the main instrument in both Hollow and Hollow Sky, just like Crisis Core soundtrack, especially CC Aerith's theme, The price of freedom and Why, all playing at the end of the game to narrate THAT scene. And Why has a guitar acoustic version too.

Hollow sky plays in Sector 5, an homage to Crisis Core, "sky" is the symbol of Zack and, coincidentally, the new key art of Aerith has her staring at the sky.

Funny: Aerith's final line is about the sky and Hollow starts when Zack shows up at the end.

All coincidences I guess.

Tetsuya Nomura discussing the Final Fantasy VII Remake theme song

“I promise”

The importance of the “promise” through FFVII compilation

For many years part of FF7 fans stated that the promise shared between Cloud and Tifa before he left to join SOLDIER was “not so relevant” or that Tifa “pushed the promise on Cloud against his own will”. Basically it was passed off as a plot device whose only narrative purpose was to convince Cloud to join Avalanche. I think this kind of statements were faulty from the very beginning. If each one of us can have their own interpretation of a specific scene of the OG, due to the stylized graphics and the lack of voice acting, the reiterated prensence of this scene from the start to the end of the game should have been enough to appreciate its importance. 

The aim of this article is to go over the compilation to try to understand if the promise was really just presented as a plot device or if we can safely assume it has a deeper and wider meaning in the narrative context of the story.

Tifa: Hey, why don't we make a promise? Umm, if you get really famous and I'm ever in a bind......You come save me, all right?

Cloud: What?

Tifa: Whenever I'm in trouble, my hero will come and rescue me. I want to at least experience that once.

Cloud: What?

Tifa: Come on--! Promise me----!

Cloud: All right......I promise.

1997: Final Fantasy VII

In the original FF7 the promise was brought up by Tifa after the first bombing mission in order to convince Cloud not to leave Sector 7 and join Avalanche. After remembering the promise Cloud behaved dismissively, but nonetheless he agreeed to join the next mission. 

During the flashback in Kalm, Cloud recalled Tifa mentioning the promise when he found her in the reactor (it’s important to point out that during the flashback Cloud’s mind is still highly messed up and that it’s a mix of his own memories, Tifa’s memories and Zack’s stories. Cloud still can’t contextualize what he “remembers” but it’s relevant to notice that even in this state of confusion Tifa’s words are stuck in his mind).

The memory of the promise is one of the three sections of Cloud’s subconscious during the Lifestream sequence.

When Cloud finally remembers the truth about his past, Tifa realizes that he really kept his promise.

During the high affection scene under the Highwind Cloud finally renews his promise to Tifa.

2004: Before Crisis

The Player Turk meets Tifa on 21st September 0002 on Mt Nibel and asks her to be the guide for the SOLDIERs sent to check Nibelheim Mako reactor. Tifa asks if he/she knows Cloud and talks about the promise they shared two years before (video).

The Player Turk meets Cloud twice:

On 0001/6/28 Cloud takes part to a mission to protect a Shinra scientist from Avalanche and he ends up fighting alongside the Player Turk. If he dies these are his last words (video):

When Cloud comes to know that Tifa will be their guide to Mt Nibel, he asks to the Player Turk not to tell her that he's in town because he's ashamed of his failure (video). 

A shot of Cloud and Tifa at the water tower appears in both scenes:

2005: Last Order

Last Order is an OVA based on the events of Nibelheim incident and the escape of Zack and Cloud from Shinra's army. 

When Tifa gets injured she wishes Cloud could be there (video) (she says more or less the same lines Cloud “remembered” in OG Kalm flashback [see above]). Contrary to the other prequels, when Cloud finally arrives Tifa sees him and she thanks him for fulfilling the promise (video) (same dialogue they share in OG Lifestream sequence when they find out the truth).

2007: Crisis Core

Tifa sends an e-mail to Zack where she mentions the promise:

Sephiroth—I don't get him at all. Is everyone in SOLDIER like him? Oh, and are there any blond guys in SOLDIER? Well, it's just a dream...Any girl would love to have a blond SOLDIER guy protect her when she's in a pinch. Well, it's no good just waiting for my blond knight in shining armor to show up, so I've started learning how to fight, myself. My teacher tells me I've got a knack for it.

I almost forgot. Please don't tell anyone in SOLDIER that I asked about the blond guy. Okay?

In one of the DMW flashbacks regarding Cloud, Zack finds him staring at the water tower "thinking about the past" (video)

A parallel: Zack promises Aerith to go back to her in Midgar, under Nibelheim water tower where Cloud and Tifa shared their promise two years before (video). In my opinion this parallel reinforces the idea that the first reason Tifa asked Cloud to share a promise was to meet him again.

* I think also On the way to a smile and consequently Advent Children subtly refer to the promise but it’s less evident so I’ll leave it for another post.

2020: FFVII Remake

Like in the OG also in the Remake there’s the flashback of the promise. The devs fixed the old OG misconception - Cloud remembers it on his own - so that it is impossible to state now that Tifa forced it on Cloud. Cloud is also the first one to bring up the matter telling Tifa that he won’t leave Sector 7 because he wants to help her. 

Finally, the promise is referenced again in Wall Market. At the Karaoke Bar there’s a singer, Akila, whose career started 7 years before (when Cloud and Tifa shared the promise) and he hopes his new song, Midgar Blues, will be his greatest success. The song talks about a man who left his loved one to go to Midgar, and he recalls staring at the stars with her (song). I already wrote a post about this song.

In conclusion, I think that not only the original game but the whole compilation made sure the audience could percieve the fundamental importance of the promise, not just as a plot device but as the motive force that led Cloud to become a hero. 

I have written and rewritten the Gast Post wayyy too many times and put more time thinking about it then it's worth so now here it is, just so it will begone from my drafts, here's my beef with Gast Faremis and the two big narrative issues that make thinking about him fill me with rage

Also I'm gonna put a TW for grooming here actually because Gast's lack of a canon age makes it seem like he might have met Ifalna when she was very young and they have a weird power imbalance thing going that I kind of talk about

The Jenova Project

It is basically impossible to make a sound judgement on Gast's ethics because we have no idea when he left the Jenova project or really why beyond that he knew he misidentified Jenova. I know one of the ultimanias said he felt guilt/remorse. But to be quite frank, until they show this remorse in-game it means nothing to me. It's one thing to reveal details like ages in the ultimanias, but Gast is a far too critical player in the plot for his characterization to be getting done secondhand in supplemental materials. Do not get me started on how he never shows up in Dirge. They just... ignore him a lot of the time, which is really weird since his discovery of Jenova is the plot catalyst for the entire series.

Also, I've noticed people tend to passively talk about him like he's *the good one* on the team or that he would have saved Sephiroth from Hojo. I'm not really sure where this comes from? Sephiroth speaks highly of him, but i don't trust Seph to be an accurate judge of character when it comes to Gast. Sephiroth would have been, at the very vert latest, probably around 4 when Gast left the company. If he even remembers Gast at all, his memories are not gonna be a full picture of what the man was like. Besides that, I think it's incredibly likely Sephiroth has a mystical, idealized version of Gast in his head, because Gast is someone who could, in theory, give him the answers about his origins Hojo refuses to. Hojo also probably shit talks Gast if be ever comes up, which would only make him more appealing to Sephiroth. Gast is not Hojo. He has cleared the bar past literally the worst person Sephiroth has ever met. It is akin to praising a candle for being able to burn compared to a crumpled, broken, wet match. Gast being less abhorrent then Hojo doesn't mean he was a good person.

I think people also tend to automatically assume Gast was a good person bc he's Aerith's dad, but being a good person isn't genetic. He didn't have the opportunity to be a father to her for more then about 3 weeks. That's not his fault, obviously, but it means he had no hand in raising her, so him being her father really isn't indicative of anything outside of him being involved with Ifalna, which we will get to in a second.

Honestly, it seems to me like Gast was ambivalent to Sephiroth at best. Remember that a perfect weapon was not what they were designing Sephiroth to be; they wanted him to be an Ancient. Of course, Jenova is not one, meaning that in terms of achieving its original goal, Gast's goal, Project S was a failure from the outset. I can't help but wonder if Gast saw Sephiroth that way, or else as a horrible mistake, especially considering that after leaving the company and abandoning Sephiroth (and maybe Lucrecia depending on who left first) to Hojo, Gast on his own time achieves his original goal of making an Ancient, by fathering Aerith. Speaking of...

Ifalna

We know from the guides that Ifalna was 29 when she died. Aerith was 7, meaning Ifalna had her at around 22. If Gast was around Hojo' age, he would've been in his early 30s when Sephiroth was born. Sephiroth is 5-6 years older then Aerith, which would put him at around his mid thirties when he had a child with Ifalna. If Gast left the project shortly after Sephiroth was born or during Lucrecia's pregnancy, he might have met Ifalna as early as her being 18. I sincerely do not believe the devs want to imply their relationship was predatory. I honestly don't think all that much thought has been put into it at all, and while it's reasonable to sideline it since it's not the most urgent bit of lore, this sidelining makes trying to figure out what their dynamic was a nightmare.

Apparently the ultimanias are contradictory about whether the two of them met at Shinra or outside of it. The only time we've ever seen the two of them together was the Icicle Inn tapes, wherein their interactions seem mostly professional until the last tape. In this last tape, the dev's clumsy way of showing that these two are in a relationship was to have Ifalna start to address him as Professor, then correct herself and call him 'honey' instead, which is a hell of a Freudian slip for her to make, given that this tape takes place almost a month after the birth of their daughter.

Again, I think this was just a very awkward blinking neon sign hung up in order to quickly convey THESE TWO WERE IN LOVE, but if you take it at face value, it is strange at best and downright chilling at worst. Gast was the leader of the Make An Ancient Baby project, and when he realized he didn't actually make an Ancient, he left the project and went and had a baby *old school style* with the last Ancient while she was undergrad age. It is fully possible he and Ifalna did have real feelings for each other, but that context with the age gap just makes it... eugh. And it's not like they had a professional friendship and he just served as a sperm donor for Ifalna because she wanted to start repopulating her species or smth. She calls him by a pet name, they are in some kind of romantic entanglement.

At this point I don't think the devs have put nearly as much thought towards this as I have, we're probably just supposed to assume they were happy together because it makes Gast dying more tragic. But them neglecting this relationship leaves it uncomfortably unclear. For example, because they don't think about this relationship a lot, Aerith never mentions her mom telling her about her dad, which is very easily read as Ifalna not wanting to tell her daughter about Gast. That would just be because it hurts Ifalna to talk about his death, but... she also told Aerith stories about the Ancients, which must have also been painful since they were the last two, stuck in a lab away from nature. We know Ifalna gets emotional when talking about the Cetra, she gets worked up seemingly to the point of crying while talking about Jenova in the interviews. The only explanation I can see for why she wouldn't want to talk about Gast if they were happy toghether was that Hojo might punish her if she did. (Worth noting i have traces of two pasts but haven't gotten to reading it yet, she might mention him in there but again supplemental materials, Aerith has never knce mentioned a dad in the actual games)

If the goal is that we are supposed to see Gast as a bad or even morally compromised person who went straight after leaving the company, that's perfectly fine, but everything about him is so muddy that I genuinely can't tell what to make of him. Hojo and Hollander we're clearly supposed to hate, and Lucrecia has settled herself pretty comfortably in the "did fucked up things but has since paid for it" niche, but Gast is just... here. Floating around in the back of the narrative, not even really haunting it because his main contribution as the guy who discovered Jenova gets usurped by Hojo being the one to spread its cells. His other main contribution is being Aerith's bio dad, and she has never once seemed to give it any thought. The only person in the modern era who seems to give a rat's ass about his role in everything is Sephiroth, for like 2 seconds during his meltdown at Nibelheim before he's back to huffing the mommy issue fumes. He is just... such a bizarre, frustrating nothingburger, and I desperately hope they rectify it in remake 3.

artists rendition of one of my favorite bits in the update

tell me why tifa recommended this guy again

FFVII Remake Easter Eggs and compilation continuity - Part 5: ON THE WAY TO A SMILE

FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

Jessie: I make a mean pizza, I’ll have you know! Marche, luche, black milly, red shelly - I use only the best ingredients! Sound good?

Cloud: Never heard of any of that stuff.

A NEW BAR 

Some months after Meterofall, Barret, Tifa and Cloud opened a new bar in Edge.

Barret: I guess...we’ll build another bar.

Tifa: Yeah. We will. You’ll help too, won’t you?

Cloud: For a price.

DENZEL

Cloud found Denzel, an orphan in need affected by Geostigma, in front of Aerith’s church and decided to bring him home. In remake Aerith used to visit an orphanage placed near her house, in Sector 5.

BARRET’S MISSION

After Metorfall and the defeat of Shinra, the world lost its primary energy source and got plagued by Geostigma. Barret embarked on a journey to amend for his sins and he finally resolved to do it by finding a new energy source and so help people start a new life. 

You’re lying to yourself, even now. (...) Picture it! Picture a world without Shinra. Without Mako energy. A stagnant, impotent world. Now picture a natural disaster. Who would help the people? Help to recover and rebuild? You? With their old world ruined, will they thank you for the new?

MEMORIES

After being killed at the end of FFVII, Sephiroth tied his existence to Cloud’s memories, creating a bond between them.

Were the planet to die, so many things would be lost. (...) That which binds us together would be no more. And I would be loath to live in such a world. 

(...)

Our world will become a part of it...one day. But I...will not end. Nor will I have you end. (...) The edge of creation. Cloud, lend me your strength. Let us defy destiny...together.

GUILT

In the OG Tifa doesn’t show much hesitation about AVALANCHE methods and the regret for the victims of Sector 7 is just slightly mentioned a couple o times, while that’s one of her major traits in the Remake. This characterization comes from Episode Tifa, that fully explores her feelings about her past actions and their consequences. 

A whole lotta mormal people with families and friends work for Shinra. People just trying to support their loved ones as best they can. I know it's not exactly a revelation, but... It's easy to forget.

Aerith in the Sleeping Forest

Patreon | Redbubble

CHAINSAWMAN SPOILER!

Denji bragging about his previous dates..

...His actual previous dates

A good match indeed

"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--"