IT CLICKED

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!

FFVII Remake Easter Eggs and compilation continuity - Part 6: THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT: A TURKS SIDE STORY

NEW CHARACTERS

The novel introduces new characters like:

LESLIE

KYRIE

MIREILLE

MERLE

PHOTOS

In the book Evan tells Tifa about some pictures of ladies he found at Corneo’s Mansion. In the Remake indeed Corneo takes various pictures of Cloud. 

Cloud: What was that?

Don Corneo: Don’t you worry your pretty little head. Just a picture to preserve the moment! And to ensure you don’t do anything inappropriate like say “No”... 

FAMILY

Ms Folia, the teacher of the Leaf House, said she considers the kids of the orphanage as a real family. The same concept is repeated at the end of the novel when Kyrie states that she, Evan and Bits form a real family even if they’re not relatives, and Cloud confirms he feels the same about his own family (this concept was already touched also in On the way to a Smile from Tifa’s pov).

But I want the children to know that until they can stand on their own two feet that I'm here to support them, care for them, love them—that even if we're not actually related, we're still a family—a real family, in all the ways that matter. If I can do that for them, then well...then maybe I'm making this world a better place.

A few more for the FFVII minor arcana. 

I often get asked if the deck will be printed, and the answer is yes! The best way to keep updated is on Patreon, where you’ll also get card meanings, WIPs, and monthly prints of the cards and pretty much anything else I’ve drawn, if you so choose. Bonus being you’ll also be helping me pay my bills and ensuring I can keep creating. Please consider joining us over there if you can.

Previously: FF playing cards | FFVII playing cards | FFXV Tarots | FFVII Tarots | FFXV Playing cards

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easy. lmao

This is Cloud and Roche to me

artists rendition of one of my favorite bits in the update

SOLDIER-Cloud VS Real-Cloud

Part 3: Another Bombing [A Complete Analysis of Final Fantasy VII]

Welcome to the third chapter of my FF7 analysis. I am writing these posts as one long rumination under the assumption that you have read the prior chapters. If you are new here (thanks for coming!), please head to the following masterlink before proceeding further: https://hartmonkey.tumblr.com/post/674955243020238848/a-complete-analysis-of-final-fantasy-vii

Last chapter we briefly noted Cloud, Tifa and Barret’s train trip to Mako Reactor 5. This chapter will take a deep look into their individual motivations and personalities as revealed throughout the mission. Before examining this venture, let’s backtrack just a little to an often overlooked moment. I’d left it out last chapter for it feeds into the combat system we are about to embrace – a system that is in every way married to FF7’s lore (the external worldbuilding) and arcs pertaining to individual characters. This moment is where Barret asks Cloud to give the tutorial on using Materia.

Continua a leggere

The Misconceptions of FF7: A Cloud, Aerith & Tifa Analysis (Links)

As a side to - for all my efforts - an objective analysis of the one of the greatest masterpieces in fiction, this post has been on the back of my mind for a while. I did not initially want to do this post. But with all the enmity and spitefulness accumulated in the FF7 fanbase that has warped perceptions of its heroines into ludicrous caricatures over the years, it saddens me to feel that it is now a must. I am, of course, talking about the misconceptions of Cloud’s character, and the false notions & unwarranted hate surrounding Aerith and Tifa.

For anyone interested, this post is in 5 parts, linked below:

Part 1: The misconceptions around Cloud Strife

https://outbythehighwind.tumblr.com/post/640346131917946880/the-misconceptions-of-ff7-a-cloud-aerith-tifa

Part 2: Cloud’s relationship to Aerith

https://outbythehighwind.tumblr.com/post/640346297225904128/the-misconceptions-of-ff7-a-cloud-aerith-tifa

Part 3: Cloud’s relationship to Tifa

https://outbythehighwind.tumblr.com/post/640346303037112320/the-misconceptions-of-ff7-a-cloud-aerith-tifa

Part 4: Aerith and Tifa in their relationships to Cloud

https://outbythehighwind.tumblr.com/post/640346307697967104/the-misconceptions-of-ff7-a-cloud-aerith-tifa

Part 5: Aerith and Tifa as FF7′s heroines

https://outbythehighwind.tumblr.com/post/640346343012024320/the-misconceptions-of-ff7-a-cloud-aerith-tifa

The care for details..

The Crab Warden stored in the corkscrew tunnel is the same weapon that killed Melphie during the Wutai war.