Next Big Project Is A Calendar For 2020, Starring FF Characters From VI To XV, Flowers, And Wings. First

Rainy Sunday afternoon

FF7 Remake ~English/Japanese Comparison Master Post

I have been noting the differences between the official North American English language version of FF7R and the Japanese game. Translation choices are guided by cultural differences and the media tropes, audience expectations, and localized needs that shape the narrative. These small differences can significantly impact how we understand characters and their relationships. I love sharing my observations and guesses with other fans!   I think I am pretty unbiased since this is my first real encounter with the story (husband played the OG so I know a little bit) but know these are still my thoughts on it. I am overall disengaged from the surprisingly vitriolic ship wars. Pls don’t drag me into that.     I have made 10 posts at least 20 about it so far. The earlier ones are a bit sloppily done but as I’ve continued, the later posts got more streamlined and easier to read. Sorry for typos. I’ll update this master post occasionally when more posts come. If you are so moved, there is a link to send me a cup of coffee because I can only really do these late at night.   

20. Tifa’s resolution 19. “You can’t fall in love with me” 18. EVERYONE DIES 17. Interlude: CLOUD AND TIFA LUUURRRVVEE EACH OTHER - I only did a few and they are somewhere in the comments.  16. Untranslatable weird speech things: the case of Reno 15. Untranslatable weird speech things: the case of Wedge ~Shameless request to please buy me coffee. I don’t have a patreon 14. Hide and Seek with Tifa and Aerith, aka Chicks before Dicks  13. We’ve got a bodyguard, don’t forget. MINE. 12. HOHEEEEEEEEE + video 11. Pretty boys, homely girls, nailed it, and is Cloud…kind of stupid? 

~~Pause for a Reeve appreciation post~~ 10: Someone’s got a bit of a crush 9. That’s the perfect type for you I’d say. 8. Is Tifa, like, your girlfriend? 7. Aerith’s personality differences.  6. Not a “Merc” and other observations.  5. You and everybody and their mother.  4.5 note: A great Japanese youtuber compares the Ghost scene. 4. Tifa, the protector. 3. Lovers used to give these when they were reunited… 2. Flirting at the bar. 1. Alone at last.

Family gathering

“As long as we’re together, I won’t be afraid.” “Yes, I promise.”

@zerith-week day 2: promise

FFVII Remake Easter Eggs - Part 2

SPOILER ALERT! Spoilers about the FFVII compilation.

FFVII Remake includes a lot of Easter eggs referring to the whole FF7 compilation. This is the second post, and it will include the references to…

Crisis Core is a PSP game released in 2007. It’s a prequel to FFVII and focuses on the adventures of Zack Fair.

1. RUDE BEING…RUDE.

“Haven’t seen him before. He your new boy toy?” Rude is referring to Zack, Aerith’s boyfriend at the time of Crisis Core. Very…rude though (Chapter 8).

2. THE PUPPY

- Angeal used to refer to Zack as a puppy.

- Stamp the dog is a new misterious element added in the Remake. He’s a beagle, but at the end of the game, when Zack survives, we see it changing in a terrier.

Are you Zack the puppy? My son wrote to me once about you, zero attention span, restless as a little puppy.

3. BANORA WHITE

- There are some billboards of “Banora White” apple juice in Midgar.

- These fruits only grow in Banora, and the juice was invented by Genesis.

4. DATING

Aerith asks Cloud to be her bodyguard in exchange for one date. Yes, this was already in the original FFVII but the gesture is taken from Crisis Core (Chapter 8).

5. SELLING FLOWERS

- Zack suggested Aerith to sell flowers and they started selling them together in Evergreen Park.

- Aerith and Cloud arrive in Evergreen Park and she remembers the time she used to sell flowers there (Chapter 9).

You know, a long time ago, I used to sell flowers here.

6. YOUR EYES

In Chapter 9 Aerith stares at Cloud’s beautiful eyes the same way she did with Zack. In Japanese Zack and Cloud answer with the same sentence.

7. PINK DRESS

- Zack asked Aerith to wear something pink when they would have met again.

- The pink dress has always been Aerith’s distinctive mark since 1997, but her optional outfits in the Remake, that were not in the original FFVII, are pink too (Chapter 9).

From now on, why don’t we make a promise every time we meet? (…) For example, when we meet, you always have to dress in pink.

8. TRAINING ROOM

- The training room was a virtual reality simulator used by SOLDIERs in Crisis Core.

- Cloud, Tifa and Barret find a battle simulator in Shinra HQ in Chapter 16.

9. PROJECT S AND PROJECT G

- Hojo says he wants to breed Aerith with S and G type SOLDIERS.

- In Nibelheim Mako reactor Genesis told Sephiroth about Project S and Project G. The first gave birth to Sephiroth, the second to Angeal and Genesis. Project G was also used to create Deepground SOLDIERs (Chapter 16).

CC: “Jenova project G gave birth to Angeal and monsters like myself. Jenova project S used the remains of countless failed experiments to create a perfect monster.” 

FF7R: “We could have the Ancient reproduce. (…) I would start with candidates from SOLDIER. These would of course include S and G types.”

10. CELLULAR DEGRADATION

- Genesis was a failed experiment and his body kept degrading irreversibly.

- In Chapter 7 President Shinra, after noticing that Cloud is a SOLDIER, points out that SOLDIERs usually die pretty soon because of cellular degradation.

Once a SOLDIER, always a SOLDIER. Though not, alas, for very long. Accelerated cellular degradation being the most common cause of death by far.

11. KUNSEL

- Kunsel was a SOLDIER and friend of Zack.

- When some infantrymen see Cloud and recognize him they say they’ll go and call Kunsel (Chapter 16).

Cloud? You’re Cloud, right? (…) We went through training together. (…) Hey, sit tight man – I'mma go get Kunsel.

12. BARRET’S LAST STAND

“Worst route ever. Gimme a suicidal last stand. At least– At least–at least that’d have an end!” Barret says this sentence while climbing Shinra backstairs, at 49th floor – SOLDIERs floor. It’s a reference to Zack’s last stand (Chapter 16).

13. FREEDOM

Before entering in the dimensional portal Aerith says that beyond it there’s “Freedom. Boundless, terrifying freedom”. It reconnects with Zack’s iconic sentence before his last stand “The price of freedom is steep” (Chapter 18).

14. THE SKY

- In Crisis Core Aerith told Zack that the real sky frightened her.

- At the end of the Remake Aerith says “I miss it. The steel sky”, referring the upper plate that covered the real sky. In Japanese she says “The  sky…I hate it”, because it took away from her Zack and her mother. (Chapter 18).

15. THE DEFEAT OF DESTINY

- Zack had a dream in Crisis Core that foreshadowed his death. He was looking at the sky wishing to have wings like Angeal.

- In the Remake he defeats his destiny and looks at the sky in the same position (Chapter 18).

16. ZACK’S LAST STAND

This iconic scene is replicated shot-for-shot in Chapter 18

PART 1 (BEFORE CRISIS)

PART 3 (ADVENT CHILDREN)

PART 4 (DIRGE OF CERBERUS)

PART 5 (ON THE WAY TO A SMILE)

PART 6 (THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT: A TURKS SIDE STORY)

PART 7 (PICTURING THE PAST)

PART 8 (FINAL FANTASY VII - 1)

PART 9 (FINAL FANTASY VII - 2)

PART 10 (EXTRAS)

Reblogging because fundamentally I agree on everything but one point. Adding the "read more" line because I ended up writing more than I expected, it's late at night and probably it's filled with grammar mistakes and inconsistencies.

First of all I'm loving this article, it's really well written and I agree with its content.

The only point I disagree is the firm idea that Aerith will undoubtly die OR her presence will ruin other characters' arcs.

I'd say you're right if we could reasonably assume that from now on things will be going exactly like in the OG and that Aerith's survival is just the faint illusion of some fans. But after all the changes set in the first part of the Remake I don't see how things could be faithful to the OG anymore.

I think Aerith has a big chance to survive. The first part hinted her death way too often to just end up in the Forgotten City and let her die the way she did in the OG. Like "do you remember the tons of times Cloud foreshadowed her death and Aerith seemed to hope she could change her future? Well, it was useless she died anyway". Oh thank you Square Enix.

I don't want to degress too much on plot speculations and stay close to the shipping subject, but can we still assume this is just a Remake of the story as we know it? Maybe yes, probably no. If we defeated the "Whispers" I guess everything can happen from now on. As far as we know this could turn out to be a sequel, or even an illusion.

Aerith's survival is irreconcilable with the events of the original story just like Zack's survival but...actually he survived anyway.

The point is that whatever happens, wherever this Remake will bring us, her survival won't affect the romantic endgame. I am a CT. And not because I prefer Tifa over Aerith, but because I think that reading this story under the perspective of "Cloud will always love Aerith" is both inconsistent and turns Cloud into one of the worst jerks in the world. For a tons of reasons that CAs usually conveneintly ignore.

The big problem of this story is that SE never fully closed Aerith's character arc for what concerns the romantic aspect. In the OG she had strong feelings for Cloud, then there was the date (yes I think her date is the canon one), Cait Sith's prediction and...? She died and the romance died with her, and Cloud never talked about her until the end of the game. She saved everyone from the Lifestream, but what about her and her feelings? When we discovered the truth about Zack there was not a single word that closed their story. Zack said one line about Aerith and it is even not much of a great line. I get why Maiden was created, even if I'm convinced it's not a canon entry.

That's what caused the LTD not the fact that CT wasn't obvious. People who really like Aerith can't accept her being left alone in the Lifestream with Cloud and Tifa living happily ever after. They can't accept Cloud's feelings faded away when he regained his true personality, at the point that most of them refuse that Cloud had ever had a fake personality in the first place.

Crisis Core somehow tried to fix this flaw of the OG but the damage was already done and I lost count of how many times I argued with people who rabidly try to diminish the importance of Zerith. There's no other entry in the compilation where romance is more blatantly obvious than CC but this still happens too often: People trying to disminish the canonicity of CC in favour of Maiden. People saying Zack and Aerith weren't in a relationship. People saying Cloud didn't love Tifa at the time of Nibelheim incident. People saying Zack was in a relationship with Cissnei. People saying Cloud was always himself and trying to minimize his brain damage and the link with Zack. People claiming that Zack in AC was just a product of Cloud's imagination.

I could spend the whole day adding examples. All this to proof that even if Cloud lives with Tifa and raises children with her for at least 4 years (Case of Denzel is set after DoC) they live as totally strangers, because he'll pine for Aerith forever, throwing away all the themes of AC. It's so ridiculous that's incredible that someone could really believe it. But actually A LOT of people are convinced about this, sometimes it feels like most of the fandom thinks so.

SE knows it, they are aware of how many fans want a happy ending for her. Like you said, for many fans she IS the greatest, bestest and most importantest, and she can't be dismissed once again in the Forgotten City just to show up to save the day when Meteor is about to distroy the world. The devs have to give an answer to the expectations between Cloud and Aerith that they set 24 years ago. And they could do it by letting her survive.

The king of CA claims has always been: "IF Aerith survived she'd have been the love interest" followed by "she would heal Cloud in the Lifestream" and "She'd have the Highwind scene". They're debunkable under many perspectives but - at least when I tried to - it never worked. Withthe Remake the devs could let her survive and show that her life doesn't affect the bond between real-Cloud and Tifa. She can't steal moments that belong to other characters. She wouldn't even want to do it. The Lifestream scene will always be Tifa's scene, no matter how much some fans would like to see it played by the mage instead of the monk.

The devs already started to show this. Remake Aerith knows something about the future, and her flirtious attitude toward Cloud is different than in the OG. All their original flirting scenes were removed, most of the new flirting scenes heavily refer to Crisis Core (when they're not a copy&paste), reducing to a minimum the genuine bonding moments between them. Hell, of all the themes her resolution scene could revolve around, the core of it is the famous "You can't fall il love with me. It's not real." No matter how much some people try to distort this sentence to turn it in a love confession. It isn't. It doesn't matter how much people try to read Hollow as a CA love song, it starts when the camera focuses on Zack and Aerith. The devs are softly giving to fans the answer about the LTD in a way that her presence won't affect the outcome.

So I really hope she could survive. For one because I'm selfish, I like her and I don't want to cry her death in 4K. Then because if she dies again at the Forgotten City, the "IF" statements will be brought up again and again and again. Even if the devs would show Cloud and Tifa getting married, someone will always claim that deep in his heart he loves Aerith and Tifa is a rebound, and I don't really feel like keep debating again about who Cloud Strife loves over the next 25 years.

Dead or friendzoned, choose one: The Aerith uncertainty principle.

This article argues that while it might be possible for Aerith to be a love interest in FFVII:R, or that she might survive in FFVII:R, that these things can't both happen. disclaimer: I don't believe either will be happen. ______________________________________________________ Imagine this, the year is 2040, you're playing FFVIII:Remake. Rinoa is doomed out in space, just when she thinks she's about to die, she looks up and sees Squall coming towards her, in a move of unprecedented daring he had jumped out of the Ragnarok to go save her. Your eyes start tearing up as the last recollections of your childhood flood back into your mind and out your eyes. And then, suddenly, from the side of the screen.....Seifer comes floating into frame. Oh yeah, you had almost forgotten, Seifer didn't become evil during the remake timeline.

Afterwards, in the cockpit, Seifer hugs Squall and Rinoa as eyes on me starts playing. How big of an unwelcome intruder would Seifer be in that situation? How much of an insult would this be to one of Rinoa and Squalls most iconic moments? Clearly this would never happen, but why not? If Seifer hadn't turned evil, surely he'd have wanted to save Rinoa as well. Logically it makes sense for him to be there, and yet I think everyone would understand why Seifer isn't welcome there. So why on earth, when discussing final fantasy VII, do I honestly hear people say that if Aerith had lived, she'd have saved Cloud in the lifestream sequence and what's more, actually advocate for this to happen? People need to realize that even if you think Aerith is just the bestest, brightest, most importantest character in the universe, other characters still exist, and people love those other characters. And some of those people work at Square Enix, and they sure as hell won't elevate one character to the detriment of all others. Tifa and Cloud have moments together, important moments, iconic moments. There is Tifa choosing to stay behind and take care of Cloud in Mideel, there is the lifestream, there is the highwind. These are all beloved, iconic moments that fans are clamoring to see, and in each and every one of them Aerith is as unwelcome as Seifer is during "eyes on me", or Rikku during "Suteki da ne". Aerith is an ancient, the entire plot revolves around her, everyone loves her, she has magical powers and is the only person who can save the world! Imagine someone whose already that important, and then forcing her into moments belonging to other characters, there is no quicker way to aggravate a fanbase, or make a character distinctly unlikable. So Aerith, fundamentally, cannot be in those scenes, because those moments belong to other characters. But if Aerith is alive, and a supposed love interest, can she really be left out of those scenarios? Imagine Cloud is in a coma, imagine Tifa staying with him to take care of him while Aerith goes to save the planet. Imagine Tifa going into Clouds sub-conscious and pulling him out, then imagine Cloud and Tifa spending the night before the battle together, cementing their importance to each other, while Aerith goes to spend the night at Elmyra. Then, afterwards, the party defeats Sephiroth and Cloud rejects Tifa in favor of Aerith..... Cementing him as the biggest asshole ever, and Aerith as the most undeserving Mary Sue winner of a love triangle of all time.

Do you see any way of doing that that would not be a gigantic slap in the face to the character of Tifa? Who cared for Cloud while in a coma, who journeyed through his sub-conscious with him and spent her last night on this earth together with him? Fundamentally, the only way Aerith can survive, is if she takes a back in other story-arcs. People have tried to invent nonsensical ways in which Aerith could save Cloud from the lifestream, or suggest alternate routes where you still have the standard "Tifa route", but can also choose the "Aerith route". And all these ideas conveniently ignore the same basic thing. Aerith isn't the center of the universe. Every scene, every moment, every piece of importance you give to her, causes her to cast a larger shadow on the rest of the cast. People want her to be the love interest because they look at her importance to the plot, to her powers as an ancient. They look at how much of a main character she is and their first reaction is somehow "lets give her more". But her importance is exactly why this can never happen, because in order for her to take up the roles played by other characters, those characters need to take up the roles she leaves behind. And Tifa cannot do that. No matter how alive Aerith is, no matter how in love Aerith and Cloud are, Tifa will never be able to summon holy, she will never be able to save the planet by talking to the essence of life. Tifa can never fill Aeriths role, which is why Aerith can never fill hers. Because both matter, and if the thing that makes one special is taken from her, and given to the other, then you've insulted your characters, your fanbase, and your legacy by making one character the sad shadow of who they were, a pathetic ant compared to 'the Mary goddessue'. Aerith cannot do everything. Which means that if you love Aerith, you have 2 choices. You can either have Aerith be a genuine potential love interest, and have that plot point die with her. Or you can have her survive, and sit by as she takes a backseat to other characters, or you can have neither, but you can't have both. Or, you can do the worst of all worlds and argue that the entire story will change to fit this new harlequin romance novel you've invented and antagonize all your fans by removing all those iconic scenes altogether.....yeah, I don't see that happening.

Photo mode allows the player to restore the true colors of Elmyra's flashback.

As it turns out, when Elmyra adopts Aerith the ribbon is green.

(image source)

Aerith's ribbon: is it still a gift from Zack?

It has been rumored by some fans that the Crisis Core scene where Zack gave Aerith the pink ribbon is no more canon, because kid Aerith has a pink ribbon too.

I don't mean to sound pretentious but...they're evidently different. Kid Aerith's ribbon has four ends, adult Aerith's ribbon has just two.

Since the original FFVII kid Aerith's had two outfits. She wore the blue outfit in the first part of Elmyra's flashback and the orange one when Tseng tried to convince her to return to Shinra.

In the Remake she wears the orange outfit only in the train graveyard vision and the blue one in all of Elmyra's flashback, from the moment she found her at the station up to when Tseng showed up. It's definitely not very evident because of the sepia tone filter, but we can compare her dress to the concept art and to the orange dress: she has no ribbon on the chest but wears a pinafore dress and a light shirt with bell sleeves.

This means that in the sepia toned scene she was wearing the green ribbon, as we can see from the concept art.

The scene at the train graveyard bears many similarities with the situation described in Picturing the Past, so she was wearing the orange outfit before escaping Shinra HQ.

When Elmyra found her and brought her in Sector 5 she had the green ribbon, not the pink one.

Someone tried to say Aerith stated the ribbon was a gift from her mother when she met Cloud at the church...

Nice try, but she was talking about White Materia. (Leaving a couple of links in case anybody wanted to check: OG, Remake)

So, not only there's no evidence that the pink ribbon is no more Zack's gift but that scene influenced also an important moment of the Remake: Aerith and Cloud's first encounter.

And in both cases the gift was made in order to thank the other for their help

CC: To show you my gratitude for that "hello" that woke me up.

Remake: You know, for scaring those things away.

Ehhh...can I say what a coincidence again?

REBIRTH

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

Parallel #3

Same gesture

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