#ff7 stuff

Like... there's also a fair bit of cringe because I remember finding it hard back then to strike a balance between "Genesis as a vicious, angry person, who absolutely will cast fireball in his friend's faces, has jealousy and self-worth issues" and "Genesis as someone who has a Lot of issues but who ultimately does care about people and has an inherent sense of justice - that drove him to rebel against Shinra - that has been pushed to breaking point by the time the game has started, as well as any potential influence Jenova may or may not have had on him, and if you take away the things that are putting all of that influence and pressure on him he's an okay guy, actually" because I'd sometimes try and find ways to minimise his damage.

But that's an unfortunate result of Genesis being so, well... under-developed, really. We only ever see him through Zack's eyes, or - sometimes - through Sephiroth's memories. We don't get to see him through Genesis' eyes.

We hear what he has to say for himself... to people he's angry at. We never SEE what happened to make Banora the way it is when Zack arrives, we never see exactly how he found out about what he is and what happened to him, we never see what he was like as a kid... the list goes on.

Hopefully Ever Crisis will rectify some of this, by showing what Genesis was like before the fight in the training room that gave him the injury that started him toward, basically, sanity slippage of the "I don't want to die like this" and "I've been used as a science experiment without my consent and made into a monster before I was born" variety. What his actual friendship with Angeal was like. What he was like with Sephiroth when the envy over his status as a hero hadn't become too much.

I am! I haven't been fully invested for a while, and I'm not caught up on Remake Pt.2, but my user icon's been Genesis from the old Crisis Core art since... god knows when. Years ago when I wrote a time travel fic with him (I started it in '17, last updated in '19). One day, I may even go back to it. Probably if there's more Genesis lore, or if he starts being relevant again.

The funny thing is that I can see Rufus' dad succeeding to an extent, because he basically became the Head of Gaia's version of the City; literally everywhere on the Planet is just another extension of Midgar, after all, and he runs that City with a tight fist.

But Rufus himself? Yeah, he... would try, and I think that he'd fail in the same way he does in FFVII, and for the same reasons. Rufus isn't the same kind of cruel man that his father was - he was abused by him, and neglected, and he has the vital "weakness" of wanting human connection. I can still remember going through Before Crisis on youtube and it being like, "oh and here's Rufus, bonding with the special ops force that his dad set to babysit and control him, and Veld basically adopting him as one of his own."

In VII itself, he attempted to rule with fear, but it failed because he's new, they don't know him, and... that's not what he's good at. And he's willing to listen to reason. Is able to recognise an actual threat to the lives of the people he's responsible for and evacuate the city, and evacuate himself, even if that leads to the situation he's in during Advent Children where he's not at the forefront.

In fact, Rufus' status in Advent Children is funny in context of "what if he tried to start a business in the City" because honestly? The way that he's convalescing in an out of the way place, and the way that SOLDIERs and former Shinra workers are treated in that period, really reminds me of how the remnants of a fallen Wing are treated in the City.

Everyone starts treating Cloud - who, at fifteen years old at most, has no idea how to really hold a sword, let alone the strength to swing it - like he's Shinra's newest nuclear bomb just waiting to go off.

Cloud somehow ends up being befriended by Sephiroth, who bonds with him over how they're both ostracised from the rest of their peers because of their reputations, and Cloud starts seeing the War Hero as someone much more human, and somewhere along the line Cloud tells him that if he ever ends up in Nibelheim, Sephiroth should come by and say hi to his mom and Tifa. Not to show off, but just because he thinks Sephiroth could do with more friends, and since the guy clearly misses his own mother like he does, maybe he'd like being fussed over by Cloud's own mom.

This has the knock-on effect of Sephiroth being more emotionally stable, and by the time Hojo orchestrates things so that he and the others (Cloud included, still a lowly infantryman because in spite of the reputation he's now got he keeps failing his tests) are heading off to Nibelheim, Sephiroth doesn't just head straight for his room, but takes Cloud up on the offer instead.

Nibelheim gets spared because Sephiroth has a long-fostered soft spot for his friend Cloud, and Hojo has to figure out a Plan B.

"I know!"

He startles himself with his own outburst, and is just relieved that the needle he'd been using hadn't jerked in his grip in a way that would have meant a hole through his hand.

"I'm just saying. You keep re-opening the tear, it stretches, the stitches break... if you keep doing this, you're going to have to either leave it with the hole and come up with a decent excuse, or get another coat."

"I know," he says again, this time soft, quiet, but just as frustrated. "It won't go back to how it was. But I - for now, at least, I have to put on a show and pretend that it's possible."

They aren't talking about his coat anymore. Or maybe they are.

Maybe there isn't that much difference - both his life and his coat are torn and burnt and twisted out of shape, younger than they should be and barely able to keep up.

"Somethings got to give eventually," Angeal says quietly, and he thinks Angeal knows they aren't talking about his coat as well.

Genesis closes his eyes. Counts to ten. Breathes. Goes back to work.

I didn’t personally see anything wrong with Sephiroth’s face, or Tseng’s? I did feel like the lighting bleached Rude, but that was the location more than anything. 

I’m feeling like I’m probably an odd duck out when I say that I don’t feel as hyped about Reno’s “upgrade” as a lot of the fandom? I preferred his AC look. Although I’m sure this one will grow on me, and has its reasons, I liked his face in the AC style/graphics, and he was able to button his shirt up more.

Since it happens during the main game (after Cloud starts heading to Midgar) it wouldn't even be out if place in the Remake, and since the Compilation is free to be re-written as needed, there's no limits on what can be edited or changed!

To be honest... I’m gonna share a piece of what I see as the blunt but honest truth.

Square Enix and most Japanese companies when looking at production and sales, don’t really see how well a series - or, even, any given character - does in the West as important. 

We just... aren’t important to them. Not as much as we’d like to be, or that we sometimes think we are.

To me, from what I’ve seen, that’s the deal. 

So. About Genesis. 

Personally, I’d like to think that they’ll find a way to put him in somehow, even if it’s just referencing the fact that the Jenova Project wasn’t just Project S, but also Project G. Genesis is relevant because he’s a massive part of Sephiroth’s backstory (as well as Zack’s). 

There’s also the fact that, well... I think that whether he gets in at all or not is less up to us, or even SE themselves, and more down to the person who Genesis is based on, Gackt. I have mixed feelings about the man for various reasons, but Genesis is basically Gackt’s self-insert that gained a life of his own, and Gackt’s still a massive visual-kei artist over there. I can’t see why he wouldn’t want his character, which he had a personal hand in creating, in one of the most waited for and hyped games.

So, that’s my view on it. 

tl;dr: the west’s views on a character don't mean that much compared to the general fan-populace in Japan, or whether or not the character’s creator wants in on the thing.

Just my views, though, and since I can’t actually speak for either SE or Gackt, I would say don’t quote me on this.

Angeal: Will you at least talk about things?