Terra-fatalis - Terra Fatalis

‘Course she did.

As I say constantly, there's a time and place for everything, different types of conversations that have different kinds of approaches. Half the battle seems to consistently be about finding the best approach for discussions or taking in material. I tour a lot of the FF and KH fandom, amongst others every now and then, and it's...bad. It's bad every where, I suppose.

Approach to analysis is important. Analyzing to prove vs. to understand is different.

Proving, through that of a preconceived conclusion, an agenda—this has way too many potential issues. This is where you run into confirmation bias, cherry-picking, contextual problems, logical fallacies, contradictions, or really just, inefficient takes that manipulate the information to fit into whatever someone is trying to prove. Instead of investigating the little, square-shaped hole and what naturally fits or doesn't fit, hell, even what could fit through even if it's the wrong shape but the right size—you might end up just trying to force this big triangle through, changing the hole itself or destroying the whole thing altogether.

This doesn't always turn out this way, like when making fun theories, but boy have I seen that more often. Even theories can end up being negative. I mean, I'VE done that before years ago, and had to realize my own immaturity when I started getting indignant. Once you get passed that, you realize how tiring it is to even be this way.

However, if your goal is To Understand, you're in a much better position to take in the material as it is. You let what's there, what's a part of it, to shape the conception of your conclusions and that of your perception. You rely on the information and corresponding outliers to be the context. It may even change or challenge your preconceptions and personal perspective, and you have to be willing to allow the material to do that. It's natural when taking something in the first time to have some type of idea or understanding—subtext in and of itself relies on an audience's ability to already understand something. However, once you settle down and say "let me look at this", you have to free yourself, well FROM yourself, a bit, as much as you can. Because even certain content as it is enforces a bit of our own thoughts to understand it (like subtext). But, you have to try for the sake of being objective, because it's not about you at that point, it's about the thing you're examining. This is much more fun, for me.

This is definitely a general thing, but in regards to fandom, it gets real twisted, and you have people who aren't letting the content itself be the leading point to what they understand, and the logic used is reflective of that. It's actually easy for this to happen, on different levels, so it's not always this super negative or mal-intent thing.

But damn when it is, and people eat up that bullshit, it can be real bad, cause confusion, and at times make if very difficult to even talk about the content itself because then it isn't about it, it's about something else. Real life, yeah, but I feel like fandoms are petri-dishes for this type of thing because of the inclination of personal investment and feelings.

Beautiful ❤️

Aerith in the Sleeping Forest

Patreon | Redbubble

AERITH & TIFA CG IN BRAVE EXVIUS

This is perhaps a controversial question, but what is your stance on Tetsuya Nomura's writing? There are people who claim he is a bad writer, yet either don't provide concrete evidence or give feedback fueled mostly by ad hominem attacks. All stories need critique, but in terms of a largr audience, people seem to resort to insulting Nomura's work more often than actually provide constructive criticism, going so far as saying he's trying to destroy his own work than save it--a very bold statement. Unfortunately, this stigma's carried over to the Final Fantasy 7 fanbase, and people are blaming Nomura and perpetuating the narrative that he's changing the story. Yet these people seem to ignore not only their interviews, but also who the main writer of the Final Fantasy 7 Compilation actually is. Anyway, sorry if this is a controversial ask, but I'd love to hear your thoughts since you have a sharp perspective on things like this!

Not a problem at all, it’s definitely something that people bring up often in both the FF and Kingdom Hearts circles.

As you said, a story will always have some criticism launched its way, but the commentary here goes beyond that. It’s people trying to assess authorial intent by dismissing the facts. Both FF7 and KH are written by more people than Nomura himself—these are projects that take multiple inputs and creative minds to create when it comes to the more story-beat parts of the game, certain interviews even point out who influenced/created certain decisions. It’s always a group effort, even if the designated people have a final say in approval. It doesn’t detract from the creative endeavors of all other individuals involved.

But, him being the Director, people want to blame someone, if not blaming the entirety of the company. This is what people are doing with their issues founded on localization as well—they’re either venting all their frustrations towards one person (Sabin), or the company as a whole. It never means that actual critique is unfounded, but people need to do it in a way that actually makes sense and is  rational—that’s what makes it “constructive”. The visions for these games go beyond just one person, and if we want to look at them critically, we need to do so that goes beyond that as well.

I wouldn’t classify my issues with the writing of either series as “Nomura’s problem”, I’d just be more specific about what issue it is for me in the series and concentrate on it as itself. Because I know mine don’t come down to be “his issue” so specifically. The only reason I’d ever go beyond that is if there was some evidence that my specific issue DID come from him or a specific person, then I’d talk about it in addition to the problem itself. I know there are people fully blaming Nomura for the changes in FF7R, literally ignoring the interviews that talk about both Nomura and Hamaguchi being limiters to the numerous potential ideas proposed for the game, especially from Kitase who wanted big changes. And even then, Hamaguchi was the one who wanted the players to fight Sephiroth at the end of Midgar, something else fans often complain about.

There’s a reason that in all these interviews they all speak on decisions as “we”. It’s a collective. Whatever is allowed [green-lit] by Directors or Co-Directors shows there’s a common mindset and acceptance amongst a team working together. Though, I don’t feel it ever should be the equivalent of this single person blame game that doesn’t really hit at what the problem actually is.

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

Now I can officially say my birthday falls on Final Fantasy VII day 🥳

Now I really need to see this.

Source: Minor-Interest

A Clinical Analysis of Cloud's Psychology, Part I - Trauma, Dissociation, and Psychosis

This analysis was originally posted on Reddit, but I decided I wanted to archive it on this old blog too. This topic's been beaten to death already, but in light of the 25th anniversary stream and Rebirth trailer, I want to release my own take on Cloud's psychology using the lens of professional psychology. I'll cover a range of humanistic concepts and criteria from the DSM-5 (basically the bible of clinical psychiatric diagnosis) and tie them in with the lore of FFVII. Although the reasons for Cloud's identity crisis are well-known among OG fans, I'm interested in breaking down exactly why and how those factors resulted in his fabricated ex-SOLDIER persona within the context of real world psychology. I'm going to look into three main areas of exploration: trauma, identity, and reintegration. These areas will conceptualize how Cloud's experiences opened the gateway to pathology, how his understanding of himself is built and then shattered, and how the pieces come back together. This first post will cover the trauma piece, including the topics of dissociation and clinical diagnosis.

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

One of the most common misperceptions about trauma is that any adverse experience will cause it. While it's true that adversity can cause stress, this belief undermines the remarkable resilience that humans have. The most important thing to consider is that everyone has resilience and the capacity for coping, but this differs from person to person. In the clinical context, traumatic experiences are defined as frightening, dangerous, or violent experiences that elicit strong emotions and physical reactions. People can also experience trauma by witnessing an event that threatens the life or physical security of a loved one (i.e. watching a parent die). When the stressfulness of a traumatic event exceeds a person's ability to cope, the stress becomes pathological and can be classified as trauma. The tragedy of Cloud's life is that his traumatic experiences are deeply stressful and essentially occurred back to back. Each event ticks off multiple boxes for the likelihood of trauma, and then Cloud essentially experienced them in succession, if we assume that his sense of time in Hojo's laboratory was warped due to catatonia.

Dissociation

Different people have different reactions to the same traumatic experiences, and the ex-SOLDIER persona is a unique one. Although we know Cloud's ex-SOLDIER persona is his primary consequence, there's a clinical way to contextualize what purpose it serves. Cloud's headaches are used as a constant indicator that something isn't right with him. His headaches are even described in the FFVII Remake Ultimania within his character profile (translation provided by aitaikimochi):

Cloud suffers from sudden headaches that last for brief moments. This pain is usually accompanied by flashes of his childhood, his fated opponent Sephiroth, or pieces of his past. There are times when visions of the future get mixed up as well. His headaches are filled with mysteries. Perhaps there might be more than one cause of these headaches that plague him...?

Aside from serving as narrative hints, the headaches are also connected to experiences of dissociation. Dissociation is a common consequence of trauma that center around a detachment from reality as a defense mechanism. It has numerous features, some of which open the gateway to psychosis. Let's focus on the specific features that are integrated into Cloud's story.

Memory

Memory is the largest piece of Cloud's dissociation since his ex-SOLDIER persona requires him to ignore key memories. At the start of FFVII, Cloud experienced problems with remembering anything between the Nibelheim incident and his arrival in Midgar. You could argue that Cloud has selective retrograde amnesia, but his memory between the time he left Nibelheim to join SOLDIER and the Nibelheim incident is deeply distorted, rather than unclear or largely missing. This hints to us that Cloud's memory problems are a function of dissociation, which is commonly invoked in trauma victims to protect them from memories of their traumatic experiences. Cloud's case is more complex though, since he also experiences identity problems. Even though sense of identity is also a feature of dissociation, we'll talk about it later in Part II.

Hearing voices 

Hearing voices can be considered a part of dissociation when the voices are internal, or inside the head. It's when they are external and appear to be coming from outside the body that we begin to think of psychosis. This is where fantasy starts to blur how we can interpret Cloud's psychology. Cloud mainly hears two different types of voices during his journey: Sephiroth's voice, and his own voice. Cloud hears Sephiroth's voice taunting him from time to time, and it is an external voice. However, it's important to recognize that Sephiroth is a true external influence with his own agenda. Therefore, we can assume that it really is Sephiroth speaking to Cloud, not just a fabrication of Sephiroth in Cloud's head. We know this because when he experiences a headache, Sephiroth's voice often comes after. Basically, the more unstable Cloud's identity becomes, the more he mentally vulnerable he is and the more he hears Sephiroth's voice.

The other voice, Cloud's own voice, is internal. The problem is, sometimes it's tricky to tell whether it is functioning as dissociation or as a storytelling device. The key to understanding this is recognizing that this internal voice is meant to represent Cloud's real self. Cloud's identity crisis is the core of his pathology and is portrayed as a suppression of his real self. The times when he does hear his real self appear to be moments of clarity. In this case, the voice of Cloud's real self is understood as a sign of deconstructed identity; this voice is a manifestation of dissociation.

Intense Flashbacks

Intense flashbacks are another common feature of dissociation. Again, our perception of this concept in Cloud is somewhat unclear due to the fact that flashbacks are also a storytelling mechanism. However, we can use Cloud's headaches as an indicator of whether he is recalling a memory voluntarily or involuntarily. Cloud's involuntary flashbacks are shown to be disruptive and disorienting. They will initiate sometimes due to triggers in the environment, but might also occur out of the blue. Again, these flashbacks largely tie back to Cloud's identity crisis, so it's safe to say that this is another feature of his dissociation.

Reality Testing

Reality testing refers to a person's ability to understand and distinguish the external and internal world, or reality and fantasy. When someone has problems with reality testing, he experiences hallucinations. For the most part, Cloud is able to grasp his reality and navigate the environment just fine. It's either when something in the environment triggers Cloud's memories or when Sephiroth reaches out to him that he experiences intense hallucinations, which are indeed moments of dissociation. Again though, it's sometimes hard to tell if these are fabrications of Cloud's mind or if they are purposeful illusions created by Sephiroth, especially since other party members can sometimes see Sephiroth as well. But, even though there are moments where Cloud seems to have trouble distinguishing reality from his imagination, these moments are better explained by Sephiroth's influence. Therefore, I wouldn't say that Cloud's hallucinations are a sign of psychosis.

The other complicated piece here is the knowledge that the existence of Cloud's ex-SOLDIER persona is an inherent rejection of reality. Essentially, the ex-SOLDIER persona is like a delusion, a fixed belief that is resistant to change even with the presence of conflicting evidence. Cloud has to reject the reality of who he is, what happened to him, and Zack's existence in order to keep himself grounded. This is maybe subject to change now in Rebirth, but as far as the original story goes, Cloud begins to doubt himself once he is told that his memories actually belong to another person he can't remember. So, should we still talk about psychosis?

Real World Disorders

Before we proceed, a disclaimer. I do have professional training in clinical diagnosis and psychotherapy, but ultimately I'm still playing armchair psychologist. This is just my personal take on Cloud's psychology.

When I talk about psychosis, this refers to a remarkable disconnect from reality (see the NIH). Psychotic episodes can involved disturbed thoughts and difficulty with understanding what is real and what is not. It seems appropriate to discuss psychosis in Cloud's case given that his dissociation does make us question his understanding of reality around him, including what he remembers.

One of the most common things that I've seen people speculate is Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) due to the implication of the ex-SOLDIER persona as a distinct personality. DID was formerly called Multiple Personalities Disorder, and it's pretty much what it sounds like. The key feature of DID is the presence of two or more distinct personalities that alternate in the conscious. Most of the the time, each personality (or alter, as it's often called) is unaware of what the others are doing when they have control of the conscious. See Marvel's Moon Knight for an excellent recent portrayal of DID. There's a lot of dispute about what causes DID, but the general consensus is that DID results from the combination of childhood trauma, mostly abuse or neglect. To best explain it: "in DID, traumatic memories are decontextualized and processed to retain internal and external balance, which leads to formation of alter personality states each with a sense self and agency, personal history, and a mission" (Şar, 2014).

Despite this, I'd argue we cannot say that Cloud has DID as we understand it in the real world for several reasons. The most important aspect is that Cloud doesn't consistently switch between his ex-SOLDIER persona and his real self - in fact, his real self rarely if ever comes out explicitly. Rather, it looks like as long as the ex-SOLDIER exists, the real self is suppressed. This specifically tells us that Cloud's experiencing an identity issue. Furthermore, people with DID present remarkable problems with reality testing regardless of external influences. The times that Cloud sees and hears Sephiroth are arguably still partly hallucinations, but we already established that Sephiroth is deliberately messing with Cloud's sense of reality and identity in some form. He's purposefully taunting Cloud, especially when others cannot see him. We know that Sephiroth is literally reaching out to Cloud, that this isn't all happening inside Cloud's head. Therefore, Cloud's hallucinations are likely not a sign of psychosis, and it's unclear if we can even call them hallucinations in the first place.

If I had to give an armchair DSM-5 diagnosis to Cloud, I would suggest that he has Delusional Disorder. This disorder shares some features with Schizophrenia, but does not include hallucination as a symptom. More importantly, delusional disorder doesn't feature "bizarre or odd behavior" that's often seen in other psychotic disorders. Outwardly, people with delusional disorder don't appear delusional unless the subject of the delusion is involved. I do still hesitate with this diagnosis though, mainly because Cloud ultimately does respond to information that challenges his delusion. The DSM-V does specify that "individuals with delusional disorder may be able to factually describe that others view their beliefs as irrational but are unable to accept this themselves." When Cloud is explicitly confronted with information that is inconsistent with his delusion, this in fact opens the gate for Sephiroth to convince him that he is essentially not real. If he had delusional disorder, Cloud would have continued to reject reality.

The fact of the matter is that Cloud's ex-SOLDIER persona cannot be fully understood in the context of real world psychosis. The fantasy elements of FFVII complicate diagnosis, especially considering when and how the ex-SOLDIER persona was born. Plus, I wouldn't pathologize Cloud this far given that I don't think real world psychosis best explains what happens to him. While Cloud's ex-SOLDIER persona appears to be a delusion, it doesn't present negative consequences unless he's presented with conflicting information and is vulnerable to change when challenged. Essentially, we can partly understand the ex-SOLDIER persona as an ongoing dissociation that serves to protect Cloud from the memories of traumatic experiences. But, I wouldn't go so far as to give him a DSM-5 diagnosis.

Basically, we can't fully conceptualize Cloud within the realm of psychosis or personality disorders. Rather, his dilemma revolves around the deconstruction of his identity, which I'll discuss in my next post.