This Is One Of The Sweetest And Most Heartwarming Details Of The Whole Game.

I've been thinking about Sephiroth's having a tendency in Ever Crisis First Soldier to put his hand on his chest and that it seems to have made it into Rebirth as something he does.

The revelation that he used to wear a locket with his mothers picture there really does change the gesture meaning. I think he's reaching for for that. The idea he's still reaching for her roughly a decade after losing the locket really breaks my heart.

FFVII Remake Easter Eggs and compilation continuity - Part 9: EXTRAS

     CLOUD’S SECRET

Now everything makes sense

“HAIRTONIC Ideal Scalp Care. For astonishingly radiant & spiky hair!”.

     TASSELLATION

This particoular tassellation, alternating squares and octagons, present in many parts of the Remake, appeared also in other previous parts of the compilation.

     VICTORY POSES

After the victories at the Colosseum and in the Shinra combat simulator, the characters perform their OG victory poses.

     WEAPONS

If the player finds Corneo’s secret stashes they can fins three tiaras (Ruby, Emerald and Diamond tiaras) inspired to the OG Ruby, Emerald and Diamond Weapons.

     NATURAL OASIS

While in Trace of Two Pasts is stated that Elmyra’s house was full of flowers and plants even before the arrival of Aerith, it surely isn’t a coincidence that the sector she lives in, contrary to the rest of Midgar, is full of nature. Moreover the orphanage near her house is called “Leaf House” and the name of the teacher is Mrs Folia (”leaf” in Latin). 

     STARGAZER HEIGHTS

The place where Tifa lives in Sector 7, and where she suggests Cloud to live too, is a wooden building called Stargazer Heights, which is a reference to the water tower where they shared the promise. I’d say also that the presence in the same building of a black caped man isn’t a coincidence, considering that the first time these beings bould be spotted in the OG was indeed Nibelheim. 

     MATCHING OUTFITS

Tifa: Be sure to pick an outfit that goes with mine, okay?

Cloud: Will do.

Nailed it. 

Jokes aside there’s a subtle clever mechanism behind the choice of the Wall Market dresses. 

- If the player prefers Tifa, they’ll probably choose the refined dress and will have a good chance to get Chocobo Sam’s odd jobs (giving answers a bit more pro Tifa), so both Cloud and Tifa will wear the blue outfits.

- If the player prefers Aerith, they’ll maybe choose the sporty dress and will have a good chance to get Madam M’s odd jobs (giving answers a bit more pro Aerith), so both Cloud and Tifa will wear the satin outfits.

     BARRET’S DEATH

I’m not totally sure here if this was intentional, but when I saw Barret’s death I couldn’t help but think that during the first drafts of the OG he was the one who had to die instead of Aerith.

     CAPED CREATURES

We don’t know yet if there’s any connection between the Whispers and the Black caped men, but it’s hard not to notice the visual similarity of their designs. 

     BOOKS AND ADS

- PROFESSOR GAST

In Aerith’s childhood room in Shinra HQ there’s a book about the Lifestream written by Gast Farmeis, Aerith’s father.

- FAN CLUBS

In the same room there’s also a book about Stamp mentioning his fan club, which is an element that comes from Crisis Core 

- COSTA DEL SOL

There are some signs in Sector 8 - more a music disk - about Costa del Sol.

- FFVI

In one of the ads inside the trains there’s a FFVI quote from an author called “Gabbiani” - Setzer’s last name. 

- FFX-2

In Shinra’s museum there’s a picture with a FFX-2 character, Shinra.

˗ˏˋ 2月7日 HAPPY BIRTHDAY AERITH! ˎˊ˗

Hi! I see many FFVII fans having great difficulties to accept Crisis Core as a legit canon entry of the compilation. Many of its scenes are often dismissed as fanservice or lazy copy&paste of the OG, and many lament that this game ruined the personalities of the characters. What do you think about it? Thanks!

Thanks for the ask!

I often think of this quote from one of my favorite shows, and even in the case of evaluating entertainment, I wish people would often think about this in how they move forward in discussions:

“If you stop seeing the world in terms of what you like and what you dislike, and saw things for what they truly are in themselves—you would find a great deal more peace in your life.”

— Patrick Jane, The Mentalist S2Ep.6

Without trying to sound too dismissive of people's free opinions, a lot of this type of commentary either doesn't come from a good, foundational understanding of canon or a more clearer-headed, objective understanding of the content within and of itself. Especially with the perspective of the writers and what they essentially wanted to achieve. The idea of everyone having their own personal takes is the way of being human, but once we enter discussions online, this becomes more like a plague that spreads and creates/shapes even more misunderstandings.

I've seen many things over the years so I can't exactly pinpoint everything, but the most direct is that there's no point in time where Crisis Core hasn't been a legitimate, canonical entry in the FFVII canon. There isn't any room for debate on that if we're talking about the FFVII canon as seriously as possible—you'd be having a laugh otherwise. Now, the evaluation of its actual materials? That's just the difference in why people say the things they do, spectrums between agendas, personal feelings, or inclinations with trouble accepting things that otherwise would cause them conflict. We can't allow these things to dismiss our understanding of storytelling, to dismiss the fact that, while a multitude of things can be included in any content that is simply there to be entertaining, this doesn't always reflect its actual nature in regards to canonicity, or to dismiss the prospects that the Compilation isn't just extra stories of the FFVII, but is a DEVLEOPMENT of the world first established—we need to be able to look at the growth and application of this content from a practical perspective, and if we're having discussions, try to be a bit more objective when making a point to another. The game sure isn’t perfect, in whatever standard that could ever be, but the conclusions reached like you mentioned are by people who don’t help things get done. Calling the game "fanservice" or disregarding intentional parallels as "lazy copy & paste" without looking at the context of WHY it was made—we're not going to get anything done.

That's why certain discourses in this fandom, lasting decades long, doesn't get done, and never will until people change the way they think about things and why.

And now that I read it I realize this is exactly how I feel about it as well

The thing about Final Fantasy VII is that it’s really good despite how many people say how good it is

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.

Conservative politics are an incubator for the worst people to manipulate the dullest of minds.

Conspiracy theories give the D-student oxygen.