Aerith By Wlop

I want to express just a quick and superficial thought about the impact of Zack on SOLDIER-Cloud's personality since I've recently had a discussion about it.

Some months ago I stated that in this scene (not only here btw)...

... Cloud is mimicking Zack's attitude.

The person I was discussing with mentioned the quote from the Ultimania according to which "Cloud puts up a cool facade with Aerith and shows his real self when he's with Tifa", so what I had written had to be nothing but a great nonsense. Probably they thought I was trying to invalidate any romance between Cloud and Tifa in favour of Aerith, even if it would be a total contradiction since the fiercest CA fans spent more than two decades trying to loosen the connection between Zack and SOLDIER-Cloud... But I wouldn't be surprised to hear these kind of theories since the upcoming Ultimania Plus is seemingly going to show the same concept...

ANYWAY, no time for digressions.

I'd like to add a comparison with one of Cloud's DMW sequences from Crisis Core

I think it's hard not to notice the similarity with Tifa's resolution and the scene in Cloud's room in Chapter 4

But let it be clear, this doesn't mean - and I've never meant to say it - that Cloud is acting through Zack's intentions. As long as the devs don't provide further info, all we know is that Cloud didn't inherit Zack's memories, let alone his feelings. If so probably he would be much more devoted to Aerith.

Zack knew Cloud liked Tifa, he would have never flirted with her. Never.

Cloud's always been socially awkward, insecure, uncapable to approach Tifa in any way. Now I don't want to go too much into SOLDIER-Cloud's convoluted personality but he acts through his own intentions - confused intentions at this point of the story, but still his own. Only the way he expresses himself mimics Zack's.

That quote from the developers says that "when he talks to Tifa his real self briefly emerges". BRIEFLY. Stating that Cloud with Tifa is always his real self goes totally against this story and the dynamics behind the creation of his alter ego. His feelings for her are sealed deep into his subconscious, Cloud himself says "I don't know how to explain" when he's asked about what Tifa means for him.

That line has to be contextualized to make sense. I think this concept just shows something that was already in the OG: the player could choose to be rude with Aerith, even during her date (probably to show his conflicted feelings), but never with Tifa, he's always been istinctively soft with her. He gets jealous, he lets her into his personal space, he touches her and lets her touch him, and when they're in dangerous situations he's istinctively protective.

And not because Tifa is better than Aerith but because real-Cloud's character arc revolves around Tifa, like it or not. There's no need to twist a simple line from the devs nor to diminish the impact of Zack on SOLDIER-Cloud to prove it.

LMAO THE SCHOOL AU IS REAL. It’s an event coming April 30th.

HELP-

Crisis Core Transcripts

The long awaited (??? by me) master post of links to the Crisis Core (2007) transcripts. This bs was typed up by hand by yours truly because SOMEONE made UMDs very difficult to rip (<3 u SONY).

Link to gdrive folders hosting transcript documents.

Link to my fancy dedicated tumblr page for this nonsense because I can't not go overboard?? (it is maybe a convenient place to bookmark)

Check below the fold for direct links to specific content.

Complete Transcript                 (  Abridged   /   Unabridged  )

00. Prologue

01. Embrace Your Dreams       (  Abridged   /   Unabridged  )

02. Betrayal                              (  Abridged   /   Unabridged  )

03. Monster                              (  Abridged   /   Unabridged  )

04. An Angel's Dream              (  Abridged   /   Unabridged  )

05. Where Are You?                 (  Abridged   /   Unabridged  )

06. Protect Your Honor           (  Abridged   /   Unabridged  )

07. Departure                           (  Abridged   /   Unabridged  )

08. See You Soon                    (  Abridged   /   Unabridged  )

09. Escape the Nightmare     (  Abridged   /   Unabridged  )

10. Heroes                               (  Abridged   /   Unabridged  )

Credits

DMW Scenes

Yuffie Missions

Other Missions

A Clinical Analysis of Cloud's Psychology, Part II - Identity, Self-Concept, and Mako

This is the second part to my analysis series on Cloud's psychology, originally posted on Reddit. Reading the first part isn't necessary to understand this post, but highly encouraged. To give some background, I'm currently training in clinical diagnosis and psychotherapy to become a psychologist. I want to apply what I know to break down our understanding of Cloud in a clinical context.

Here, I'll talk about Cloud's identity, breaking it down based on how he understands himself and how it became distorted. I'll also discuss the role of mako poisoning and Jenova cells in Cloud's mental world, since I think these elements are especially hard to understand. Part of me wonders what's the point of rationalizing Cloud's mind in the context of real world psychology when Jenova is probably enough of an explanation. Still, I find it helpful to think of Cloud's identity crisis this way, especially when thinking about how he ends up healing.

Part I - Trauma, Dissociation, and Psychosis Part II - Identity, Self-Concept, and Mako [you are here] Part III - Reintegration, Tifa, and Unconditional Love

In my previous post, I made the argument that Cloud shouldn't be pathologized as someone experiencing psychosis. He is a traumatized individual who experiences dissociation in order to uphold a false identity. If Cloud experiences dissociation as a function of his identity crisis, then unraveling Cloud's identity is a crucial piece of the puzzle. Losing your sense of self is a drastic experience, and if we want to understand how Cloud's identity fell apart, we need to understand how his self-concept and experiences set up his vulnerability.

Self-Concept

Although we typically think of Cloud's identity as split between his ex-SOLDIER persona and his true self, I'm going to discuss these things within the context of self-concept. Humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers proposed that the self-concept is made up of three sub-components. Self-image is a person's mental picture of himself, which is prone to changing over time based on his self-esteem and understanding of his real self and ideal self. We know that Cloud's self-image is inaccurate at the beginning of the game due to his false ex-SOLDIER persona, which he wholeheartedly believes for a significant portion of the story.

Let's deconstruct Cloud's self-concept as it is when FFVII starts.

Ideal Self: Cloud is an ex-SOLDIER, a strong man capable of protecting those he cares about.

Real Self: Cloud is an ex-SOLDIER, a strong man capable of protecting those he cares about.

Self-Image: Cloud is an ex-SOLDIER turned mercenary. He is adept in combat and carries the pride and legacy of the First Class SOLDIER rank.

Why is Cloud's real self the same as his ideal self in this model? We know that Cloud experienced a lot of failures and was too weak to join SOLDIER. But, ex-SOLDIER Cloud is unaware of his true real self. As far as he's concerned, he achieved his goal of getting into SOLDIER and proved his strength. In this case, Cloud's real self and ideal self align, creating congruence with his self-image. The more congruent someone's self-concept is, the higher the self-esteem. Consequently, anything or anyone that reinforces this congruence will boost self-esteem. And, as we know very well, Cloud is proud of his ex-SOLDIER status from the start of FFVII and later internalizes pride from being Aerith's bodyguard, someone looked to as a protector. However, we know even Cloud's self-image here is inaccurate to his real self. The real Cloud never made it into SOLDIER and only wants to be acknowledged as strong. Neither his ideal self nor his self-image acknowledge this fact here. Back when Cloud was still aware of his real self, we saw that his self-esteem was poor.

Now, let's deconstruct Cloud's self-concept as it is prior to all of his traumatic experiences, which is right before the Nibelheim Incident.

Ideal Self: Cloud is a SOLDIER, a strong man capable of protecting those he cares about.

Real Self: Cloud is a Shinra grunt who was not strong enough to make it into SOLDIER.

Self-Image: Cloud is a Shinra grunt who never made it into SOLDIER because he was too weak. He is ashamed of his failure and does not want people in his hometown to know about it.

When Cloud failed to achieve his ideal self, he thought of himself as a failure, so much so that he couldn't bear to show his face when he returned to Nibelheim two years later. Self-esteem, which describes one's opinion of himself, relies on several components. A person's self-worth determines his perception of his individual value or worth. Self-worth is partly built by referencing how other people see you, a concept called the looking-glass self. We know that Cloud referenced other people's opinions of him during his childhood in Nibelheim. He wasn't friendly with the other children in the village, and in the OG, Tifa's father specifically didn't want Cloud near his daughter. This is also why he makes the flawed assumption that Tifa won't truly acknowledge him unless he proves his strength. We know that he aspired to become a SOLDIER was to get Tifa to notice him, so Cloud's concern over what she thinks of him shaped his ideal self. The other contributor to self-esteem is self-efficacy, or Cloud's belief in his own ability. Specifically, Cloud wants to prove his strength and capability as a protector. He equates SOLDIER to strength, so by failing to join SOLDIER and believing that he failed to protect his loved ones, Cloud's self-esteem took a turn for the worse.

With self-worth based on the negative opinions of the villagers and low self-efficacy based on his own perceived failures, Cloud's self-esteem is very low by default. Because Cloud's real self (Shinra grunt) didn't align with his ideal self (SOLDIER), he experienced incongruence, which further diminishes self-esteem and contributes to a negative self-concept. This is why he went to such drastic measures to hide his identity from Tifa and the rest of the villagers. One of the functions of the ex-SOLDIER persona, then, is to help Cloud maintain congruence within his self-concept. Not only that, but because Cloud's altered self-image was born from his ideal self, there is now a blurred line between his ideal self and real self. Rather than working to align his ideal self with his real self, he altered his beliefs about his real self to align with his ideal self. This is the reverse of what should happen; in therapy, you would be guided towards adjusting your ideal self to match more realistic expectations. Cloud needed to reject his real self in order to incorporate his ideal self as the real self, which is why the ex-SOLDIER persona looks like a delusion.

With this rejection of reality, Cloud was set up for a reckoning. When the truth of Cloud's ex-SOLDIER persona was revealed, he still wasn't able to access his real self, leaving him vulnerable to Sephiroth's manipulation. Sephiroth broke Cloud's self-image not just by creating incongruence in Cloud's self-concept, but by essentially eliminating the notion of a real self entirely. This means that Cloud's breakdown goes beyond incongruence. As far as he was concerned, Cloud no longer had a real self, therefore he no longer had any true sense of self-concept. Cloud was made to believe he was not Cloud from Nibelheim, but a hollow shell and a puppet. And this is exactly what breaks his sense of self all over again.

Jenova Cells and Mako Poisoning

I also want to take a moment to discuss the (fictional) biological agents that impacted Cloud's identity, mainly because these concepts are unique to the FFVII world. One of the main physiological problems Cloud experienced is mako poisoning. Remember that mako is made up of the souls of people in the lifestream. It's not just a natural energy source, it is literally millions of souls that make up the lifeforce of the planet. Tifa in the OG said that she literally heard "screams of anguish" surrounding her when she first fell into the lifestream. SOLDIER candidates (and Hojo's test subjects) undergo mako exposure with the hopes of obtaining enhanced physical and magical abilities that result from being imbued with the memories and knowledge of the planet. But, not just anyone can become a SOLDIER, since tolerating this much mako requires mental fortitude. Essentially, mako overwhelms a person with the souls and memories of the lifestream, therefore you must have a strong understanding of your own identity in order to tolerate large amounts of it. This suggests that a person needs a strong self-concept that can remain stable during mako exposure.

As a side note, an interesting thing about mako is that it reads very similarly to substance use. Different people have different tolerance for mako, with some being able to enjoy its benefits. Others though, are prone to succumbing to mako "addiction" as it's referred to in Crisis Core, which most often seems to result in catatonia. It seems to resemble how people in the real world can "lose themselves" to substance abuse. Of course, there's also the caveat that overexposure to mako can mutate humans and animals into monsters, so there's arguably some radioactive properties present as well. This isn't surprising, since one of the focuses of FFVII is environmentalism and the consequences of tampering with nature. Mako is such a fascinating phenomena in how it combines recreational, radioactive, and terrestrial/spiritual elements into an energy source of all things.

Unfortunately for 16 year old Cloud, since he had poor self-esteem and incongruence between his real self and ideal self, he had a weakened self-concept at the time Hojo got his hands on him. It's likely that Cloud's inability to tolerate mako is part of the reason he couldn't become a SOLDIER or withstand Hojo's experimentation, metaphorically representing how SOLDIERs need mental strength as well as physical strength. Not only that, but Cloud experienced mako poisoning on two occasions: once after Zack broke him out of Hojo's laboratory, and once after he first emerged in Mideel from the lifestream. Each time Cloud experienced mako poisoning, he was rendered catatonic and unresponsive, with his sense of self left in a vulnerable state. If we work off of the premise that mako is literally made up of the souls of the planet, one of the reasons that Cloud's self of sense was shattered was because of the overwhelming amount of memories that he was subjected to during mako exposure. His sense of self was literally torn apart, becoming lost among millions of other souls. Mako poisoning helped set the stage for the ex-SOLDIER persona to take shape, since it left him in a highly vulnerable state that is easily subject to Jenova's influence. Plus, if we equate mako tolerance to mental fortitude, this explains why after Cloud emerges from the lifestream for the third and final time, he didn't become catatonic a third time. By this point, he has regained his identity and his self-concept is strong enough to remain intact.

The other factor in the mix is Jenova, the primary source of supernatural conflict in the world of FFVII. According to the Dirge of Cerberus Complete Guide, Jenova is capable of reading "the memories and feelings of the people on the surface." This primarily refers to how it can mimic other people and begins, but we also know that Jenova is extremely attuned to the mental worlds of humans. It is capable of looking at people's thoughts, which it uses to manipulate them. Additionally, the Crisis Core Complete Guide says that "mentally weak people are unable to withstand Jenova's will, and it sometimes brings about mental abnormalities." I believe this is the basis of the Jenova Reunion Theory. This explains why Jenova's will is so powerful, which in turn seems to explain the Reunion theory. Again, all of this supports the notion that becoming a SOLDIER requires a good deal of mental strength.

Jenova explains why Cloud specifically took on Zack's memories as his own. Jenova's powers revolve around illusion and manipulation. Presumably, between the time that Zack died and the time Tifa stumbles across Cloud, Jenova has been taking advantage of Cloud's mental fragility by warping his memories. Jenova took memories from the dying Zack to mess with Cloud, consistent with what Sephiroth said. However, the brilliant part of this manipulation is that Sephiroth was also able to convince Tifa that her memories helped fabricate ex-SOLDIER Cloud, which is not quite true, but also not quite a lie. Tifa's presence likely kicked Cloud's ideal self into gear and presented further motivation to take on the ex-SOLDIER persona. Her uncertainty of her memories is the final piece that shatters Cloud's certainty of his own identity. Sephiroth may have been the one to explicitly accuse Cloud of never being a real person, but Jenova figuratively opened the door for him.

The Birth of the Ex-SOLDIER

Between the moment that Cloud watched Zack take his final stand and the moment Tifa finds him at the Sector 7 train station, Cloud experienced a severe mental metamorphosis that was strong enough to distort his fundamental understanding of who he is. What's unique about Cloud's experience is how a cocktail of influences converged into the perfect storm to break down and chaotically rebuild him.

All of these elements come together to explain how Cloud's ex-SOLDIER persona came to be. Cloud's self-esteem has been continuously beaten down over his entire life by a pattern of perceived failures. By the time he returns to Nibelheim at sixteen years old, he has such a poor self-image that he can't even bear to show his face to Tifa. He then goes through three deeply traumatizing experiences that essentially occurred back to back, as far as his conscious memory is concerned. The combination of psychological trauma and insecurity is what primed Cloud's sense of self to fall apart to mako poisoning, opening the gateway for dissociation from his own identity. His final unraveling was Zack's death, which broke down his self-esteem since he was helpless to do anything but watch Zack's demise. The Jenova cells then used Cloud's ideal self and his memories of Zack to manifest a false self-image that Cloud's mind desperately grabbed onto. He was further inspired by his promise to protect Tifa and his promise to be Zack's living legacy, which is what brings us to the ex-SOLDIER story that could fulfill both promises at once.

The ex-SOLDIER persona is ultimately a coping mechanism designed to protect Cloud's real self, which needed to process the intense trauma he experienced and deal with overwhelming feelings of despair, grief, and failure. His real self dissociated from the conscience and became suppressed, marking a departure from reality. Because Cloud's sense of self was inaccurate and he could no longer consciously access his real self, it left him vulnerable to Jenova and Sephiroth's deception later on, allowing them to deceive and manipulate him.

Based on what we currently know about Rebirth, it's very possible that Cloud's identity crisis will no longer play out the same way. For one, it's unclear if Cloud learns about Zack earlier, and if his identity remains intact even after learning about him. It's also unclear if Tifa will react differently to Cloud's recollection of the Nibelheim Incident. I believe though that all that is needed to retain the same story progression is (1) a fragile self-concept and (2) Tifa's uncertainty. As long as those two elements are preserved, I think it's still possible to reach the same destination even with some variations in the plot.

Part III will cover Cloud's recovery from his breakdown and will focus on the process of reintegrating a shattered identity.

I can't get this out of my mind

@zerith-week

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!

tifa week | reunion | day three 🐬🥊💫

Tifa & Aerith Reunited!

Credit: @marlenadia

Thank you so much @tifa-daily​ for this wonderful event!

i kinda love him

˗ˏˋ 2月7日 HAPPY BIRTHDAY AERITH! ˎˊ˗

Welcome 🎉