stellae felices

Unfortunately Square played right into my hands by giving Angeal Latin limit break names, so let’s have a look!

Serit Arbores - literally, “He plants trees.” It’s most likely a reference to Book 1 of Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations, “On the Contempt of Death,” which features a fictional speech by Cato the Elder praising elderly farmers that dutifully tend to their fields for the benefit of the next generation. Cato quotes a line from the poet Caecilius Statius:

“Serit arbores quae alteri s[a]eculo prosint.” (“He plants trees so that they may benefit another generation.”)

I believe this could be a reference to Angeal’s SOLDIER Honour, the legacy that he passes down to Zack.

“SOLDIER Honor, the catalyst for Genesis's change in values, is the Gift of the Goddess for him. As SOLDIER Honor represents Angeal's wishes, it can be said that Zack, who inherited Angeal's wishes, was the Gift of the Goddess for Genesis.” (Crisis Core Complete Guide, 2008, p.274)

Angeal’s legacy, carried out first through Zack, and later Cloud, serves to benefit others long after his passing. Additionally, his dreams and honour speeches were given to many of his junior SOLDIER members and continued to inspire them too:

“He has said, "If you are to live as a hero, as a SOLDIER, and as a decent person, you must never forget your honor." Those words made a deep impression on his younger colleagues, especially Zack, and lived on in them.” (Crisis Core Ultimania, 2007)

This is why I believe the choice of this Limit Break name to be very intentional. Of course, given that one of Angeal’s weapons is a shovel (😭) we could understand it at the surface level meaning (Farm Boy Angeal planting apple trees 🤠🍎), but isn’t it fun to dig a little deeper?

Ad Astra - “to the stars.” This could go in many directions as it’s a popular motto on its own, but perhaps its most frequently seen within “per aspera ad astra,” “through hardships to the stars.” I think this could be a reference to Angeal’s life journey, which saw his humble beginnings in a poor family and his rise to the very top ranks as a SOLDIER First Class. It also may reference his wings:

“The white feature, as well as being a symbol for Angeal, is also a symbol for ‘wings’. The “wings” which cross the ‘blue sky’ is Angeal, and it also includes the hint that in order to reach those heights, dreams, he needs to overcome many difficulties.” (Crisis Core Complete Guide, 2008)

I wanted to do a short follow-up to my post “On Angeal’s Wings” with full excerpts from the Ultimania interview that discusses the meaning of the Firsts’ wings to expand on those of Genesis, as well as include a link to the entire interview.

In addition to Genesis, Angeal and Sephiroth have a single wing on their backs. What is the meaning of the different colors and positions of their wings?

Nomura: “I wanted to have different varieties of wings so that the three of them wouldn’t look like [they were in] the same family. Sephiroth is a special being, so Genesis’ wing is on the opposite side of it, and Angeal’s wings are on the same side as Sephiroth’s, because he is a special person who is the origin of the Buster Sword’s legacy. However, only Angeal’s wings are white, which symbolically means “he did not fall in a negative direction”. In other words, Sephiroth could have been like Angeal, too. The colour coding is based on Sephiroth, who headed in a negative direction, and Angeal, who did not.”

So Sephiroth and Angeal are positioned as special characters in direct opposition with each other through their choices to align with good or evil. Nomura reinforces the idea behind this colour symbolism when discussing Genesis:

The “dumbapple” that appears in relation to Angeal and Genesis also plays an important role.

Nojima: “Originally, in the episode about Banora, I wanted to write about how “a land of poor but serious workers will not raise bad people”. In the FF series, you don’t see a lot of ordinary people working seriously (laughs), so with CC focusing on the theme of human relationships, I wanted to focus on episodes related to the characters’ hometowns from the angle of the soil in which their personalities were nurtured. That’s the origin of why I chose to have Angeal receive the sword from his hardworking father, and also why I chose the framework of “Cloud and Zack are both from the countryside.” In using the dumbapple, I also wanted to express the good side of Genesis——that in the past, he used to be a good person who was raised in a proper family.”

What is significant here is the statement that Genesis “used to be a good person” - by the time the events of Crisis Core are unfolding, he too has fallen in a negative direction. This is reflected in his black wing. The developers are not obligated to tell us these things, but given that Crisis Core was released as a heavily truncated version of the original story, I am grateful that they have provided us with these details in order to clear up any misconceptions about their characters. Here is the full interview for anyone interested:

I just want to put forward some information I’ve come across in the Crisis Core Complete Guide because the developers have provided us with some details that go a long way towards helping us understanding his character.

Angeal receiving white wings was intended to be an indicator of his moral alignment. In Crisis Core, he is positioned as antithetical to Sephiroth because he resisted the malignant influence of Jenova and did not wish to be a force of destruction or suffering as Sephiroth did. The implication here is that Angeal and Sephiroth both had a choice.

“Nomura wanted the three SOLDIER 1sts to have different varieties of wings. He says that Angeal's wings are white to symbolize that he didn't go in a negative direction, and that Sephiroth could have been like Angeal.” (Crisis Core Ultimania, 2007)

This is further supported by the Crisis Core Complete Guide, which has this to say about wing colour:

“The wing which Genesis has on his left shoulder in this game, and which Sephiroth has on his right shoulder in FFVII and AC…According to the development staff, the wings were made black based on the notion of good and evil.”

Angeal and Sephiroth receiving their wing on the same side shows that they are directly opposite. Genesis was fundamentally different from them both, and thus received his wing on a different shoulder, but his purpose before his final battle with Zack was world destruction, and so his wing colour was black. The white wing was unique to Angeal, and the series continues to use white feather symbolism to represent him. More on that under the cut.

The difference between these will never not be funny to me.

Genesis to Zack: begone, filth

Being immediately preceded by this scene:

*trips* *falls* *stumbles into a pit*