Of Zack Fair, Genesis Rhapsodos And The Strange Narrative POV Of FFVII-Crisis Core (Part IIIb)

Of Zack Fair, Genesis Rhapsodos and the strange narrative POV of FFVII-Crisis Core (Part IIIb)

Part I: https://buffaloborgine.tumblr.com/post/650462647672766464/of-zack-fair-genesis-rhapsodos-and-the-strange 

Part IIIa: https://buffaloborgine.tumblr.com/post/655899595763859456/of-zack-fair-genesis-rhapsodos-and-the-strange 

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Warning: Sincerely, this part takes on an even more controversial route than last part. Please read the previous parts first before reading further on this part. (I did have the link to part I in case you are new reader)

Also, please keep an open mind when you read this. I appreciate any kind of discussion about theories, but please, try to keep your bias out when we discuss on an objective subject. Thank you.

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The Mails (b) 

So we have the fundamental basic on how reliable the mails from the fanclubs could be. One person’s fanclub is mostly right when they wrote about their idol, but they may not be right about the others in the trio. 

Last time, we took a look in the Keepers of Honor’s mail, this time, we will take a look in the Silver Elite’s mail. 

Like, I think you would have already guessed out which mail it is, it’s not that hard.  

“The memory of silver winds

Sephiroth is known to value his private life, but there was a time when he had two best friends. We’d like to share a story of this threesome guaranteed to raise a smile.

The SOLDIER trio would use the training room exclusively as their playground, but in order to retain their 1st Class dignity, they would sneak in only after the 2nd Class members had gone home. Then they would proceed to have one of the three stand with a dumbapple on his head, while the other two would throw their swords at the apple to pierce it!

Sephiroth always won, his Masamune always striking every dumbapple dead center.” 

So, what’s the problem with this mail? It’s just a fun snippet about what the trio do in their free time, right? 

The first thing we notice about this mail is it’s title, “The memory of silver winds”. It then raises the very first problem about this. 

In the last part, I introduce the “Rashoumon Effect” to you guys, and it’s really important to bring it back here again. 

When you realize that you are facing a problem affected by Rashoumon effect, you should be aware of two things: one is that you don’t have enough proofs to confirm what the heck happened and two is the witnesses may not provide accurate testimony, either because of their memory got tampered by emotion, situation or even their own decision. 

Therefore, the title of this mail has a red flag that it’s just a “memory”, thus, it can totally be not accurate, due to, a lot of reasons. But of course, it can still be accurate, right? Then let’s move on to the next problems this mail brings about.  

“The SOLDIER trio would use the training room exclusively as their playground, but in order to retain their 1st Class dignity, they would sneak in only after the 2nd Class members had gone home.” 

In one of the very first mail Zack got from Kunsel, we got some information. 

Kunsel points out that “Genesis never found group activities appealing”, so it contradicts with the info “The SOLDIER trio would use the training room exclusively as their playground”. However, taken in the famous “training simulation room” cutscene, we find details contradict even more. 

Yes, we actually have a cutscene, which is trustable, of the trio in the training room and the mail from Silver Elite did say that too, we can assume that Kunsel’s stating was a wrong point of view on Genesis. The part “in order of retain their 1st Class dignity” shows that “Genesis never found group activities appealing” is a facade, Genesis acted like he doesn’t enjoy group activities, but in truth, he does, similarly to Angeal and Sephiroth. 

Therefore we can confirm that at least, to this part, the mail from Silver Elite is not wrong about the trio. 

Moving on to the next problem, and I repeat again, from the warning, this is the controversial part. 

“Then they would proceed to have one of the three stand with a dumbapple on his head, while the other two would throw their swords at the apple to pierce it!”

While this sentence sounds fun, what I want to discuss is the reliability. 

First of all, about the dumbapples. We don’t see much dumbapples around in Crisis Core, and especially in Shinra HQ. The places we can spot dumbapples are in Banora, in that one weird room of Shinra Mansion, and a few times Genesis takes it out.  

So to say that the trio would use dumbapples as a dartboard, would mean you have to see those apples around very much, but of course, you don’t. Since the dumbapples are not in abundance, wasting them as a sword throwing boards would be extremely illogical. 

The second issue with this comes from Genesis’s side. To say that the trio would get into the apple sword throwing game means that Genesis would have to agree to play on his own will, so would Angeal, and this may not be true. 

Genesis doesn’t bring the dumbapple out that frequently. We don’t even see him holding the dumabpple until Junon event. In which, he held out the apple as a way to reminisce about Angeal, who has just passed away not long ago. Besides, the Junon’s Sister Ray is a special place to him, it’s the place where the trio had had their very last friendly moment with each other (before the disaster occurred).

The other times he hold the dumbapple are: 

- Nibelheim Reactor, where he offered the apple to Sephiroth, as a way to ask Sephiroth to join him. 

- The bridge scene, where he is seen holding the apple and caressing it to his cheek. 

- In Gongaga, where he offers the apple along with “proving” his theory about the gift of the Goddess for Zack, but when Zack refuses, Genesis simply drops the apple into Zack’s hand. This later proves useful as Zack finally realized that Genesis could be in Banora due to the apple. (I’m pretty sure that when Angeal called Zack as “puppy”, he means Zack’s brain is of a puppy due to how slow he realizes the hints).  

Something to take note about is when Zack found Genesis’s diary. 

Overall, this very small amount of times we see Genesis holding out the dumbapple, his gestures towards it, and his dream to “serve the hero Sephiroth” the apples one day, show that he literally treasures those apples. He held the apple in reminiscence to his dead friend, he wished to serve the apples to his “hero” and he used the apples as a way to invite people to join him. Such a person, with that much respect for the dumbapples, would agree to use them as sword throwing boards? I don’t think so. 

Therefore, this part of the mail about the trio throwing swords at apples as a game may sound fine with Sephiroth, but it doesn’t with Genesis. And knowing Angeal, he grows up in Banora, he sees the dumbapples as precious fruit, and he comes from a poor family, thus, wasting food for games would not sound acceptable to him. 

In conclusion, this mail of Silver Elite can only be trusted from the first half, the rest is totally made up, whether is is made up by Sephiroth’s fans, or even by Sephiroth himself, I am not sure, but I can be sure, the trio would logically never come in the training room to just throw swords at dumbapples. 

Thanks for coming to my Ted-Talk. I will see you later, with a new problem.  ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ 

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Part IV: 

Of Zack Fair, Genesis Rhapsodos and the strange narrative POV of FFVII-Crisis Core (Part IVb)

Part I: https://buffaloborgine.tumblr.com/post/650462647672766464/of-zack-fair-genesis-rhapsodos-and-the-strange 

Part IVa: https://buffaloborgine.tumblr.com/post/657248451885678592/of-zack-fair-genesis-rhapsodos-and-the-strange   _____________________________________

Warning: As always, I copy paste this warning over and over just in case you ignore it and keep reading down.   “This series is very controversial, it may not fit with what you know or remember about Crisis Core. So please, read the former parts (I did put the link to Part I in case you are new reader) before putting your foot further down below.” Also, as a new issue rising with this part, I emphasize this again READ THE OTHER PARTS. Don’t say I didn’t warn you, I put that phrase like two times in just this warning.  P/s: I welcome all kind of discussion. I love discussion. But this subject is an OBJECTIVE subject, please make sure to keep your bias and prejudice out of discussion, also, I don’t welcome character dissing or using fallacies in arguments, thank you.  _____________________________________

Summary of Part IVa:  - Zack’s POV has a lot of misleading aspect, it makes you deliberately choose to look away from the bigger problem and focus on the smaller but more appealing problem to your eyes.  - Sephiroth, whether he really makes an astounding achievement in the Wutai War or not, is still used a propaganda by Shinra to lure in new recruits for the war. This process was repeating over and over, and since Shinra treat SOLDIER members with inequality, there is not a single other SOLDIER gets the privilege to be hailed as “Hero” like Sephiroth. 

Moving on, we will tackle the next problem. 

3. When all for one but one isn’t for all or… 

So we know for sure that Shinra treats SOLDIERs members with unfairness, the problem is, who knows about it, and how do they react against it? 

-This email of Lazard was sent right before you encounter Genesis for the first time in Banora’s apple juice facility. You can see clearly that this email has several words that are very ambiguous: “parental bonds”, “non-biological ties”, “respect”, “appreciation”, “ill blood”. And while this email has many different layers of meaning towards many people, I want to dissect the aspect that this part focuses on. Why would Lazard send Zack this letter just right before Zack encountered Genesis? Well, we later know that Genesis’ parents in Banora are not his biological parents, that line of “Just as happiness can be found in non-biological ties” along with the fact that Genesis’ parents funded the fanclubs for their adopted child probably points out that Lazard knows Genesis got the recognition from his adoptive parents. So when Lazard wrote that other part “Without them, “ill blood” is born”, it means that Lazard knows exactly what the problem with Genesis is, as he states “ill blood is prone to lead to tragedy, and ill blood sometimes affects our missions.” Lazard is one of the people who know about the inequality in SOLDIER, but he can’t do anything more than just issues order down, because everything is still under the control of President Shinra. Therefore, this email, along with Lazard’s betrayal against Shinra later in game shows that Lazard is also frustrated with the state of unfairness circling around SOLDIER department, and since he can’t do anything to change it, he can only choose one thing: betrayal. 

- Genesis and Angeal obviously know about the unfair treatment in SOLDIER, the conversation above pointed out that Genesis told Angeal about that and let Angeal decide whether to join him in rebelling or not. “Can you really live on that side?”, the question hits the nail on Angeal’s head, not only because it questions his decision to not siding with his childhood friend, but also because it strikes directly on his “honor”. You see, Angeal bound himself to a vivid definition, “honor”, you don’t know what kind of honor it is. Is it “honor” of helping Midgar’s civilians, or is it “honor” of doing the right thing, or is it “honor” of serving Shinra? Overall, if you choose “honor” of serving Shinra, then knowing that Shinra is an evil corporation that benefits on the suffering of people, would you really call it an “honor”? Angeal keeps hesitating between siding with Shinra (as he still went back to stop Genesis from raiding the HQ and killing Hojo) and rebelling (as he helped Hollander escape). Point is, hesitation is his own problem, despite knowing about the horrendous things Shinra did, Angeal still didn’t inform Zack about it, his silence keeps Zack in the darkness for more than half the game. Eventually, as the paradox grew too much to fathom, Angeal chooses to end himself with Zack’s hand. 

- What is a petty person? The definition of petty is someone who gets caught up in small details. An example of petty is a person who gets very angry when someone accidentally steps on their foot. Petty is defined as something relatively worthless or unimportant. An example of petty is cash kept on hand for very small purchases. So here you can see Sephiroth replies “Petty” to Genesis’s claim “After all, your glory should have been mine”, it means that Sephiroth deems “glory” as a trivial thing. If Sephiroth deemed “glory” as a trivial thing, then why didn’t he give it up to Genesis easily like how he quickly gave the “Hero” role in a LOVELESS play for Genesis? The question Genesis gave out at the beginning of this conversation “If we were to enact it, would I play the hero, or would you?” acted in sync with the claim “After all, your glory should have been mine”, the former was the metaphor for the latter and they both have the same goal. But Sephiroth answered differently to them, meaning that Sephiroth fell to Genesis’s reverse psychology, all Genesis wanted is for Sephiroth to admit, that he knew about the unfairness in SOLDIER. By saying that Genesis was being “petty”, Sephiroth admitted that Genesis has his share in the achievements that were all given to Sephiroth and that Genesis should be recognized for what he dedicated to the company, but since Sephiroth saw “glory” as trivial, he didn’t feel the same to Genesis about it. To Sephiroth, whom glory was given like daily meal, whether he did the mission or not, glory still becomes his, it’s similar to a spoiled rich kid seeing money as trivial. But to Genesis, who strived to get acknowledged, earning glory is like goal of his life for joining SOLDIER yet never did, it’s similar to a person worked hard to earn the recognition in life but never got recognized for what they do. Sephiroth, although having no ill will to act apathetic to Genesis’ struggle, his inaction towards the problem was also one of the reason the friendship fell apart. 

Overall, while Angeal and Sephiroth didn’t directly contribute to the mess in Crisis Core, their silence and inaction still play a role in the ignition of the crisis.  Try imagine yourself being the witness to a crime, if you can’t do anything to stop, at least speak out against it so the criminal can be brought to light; if you stay quiet, or choose to deliberately ignore it, you will be deemed as the accomplice to the criminal.  ________________________________________

Thanks for coming to my Ted-Talk, we will conclude this part next time. 

Part IV conclusion: 

Of Zack Fair, Genesis Rhapsodos and the strange narrative POV of FFVII-Crisis Core (Part IVa)

Part I: https://buffaloborgine.tumblr.com/post/650462647672766464/of-zack-fair-genesis-rhapsodos-and-the-strange 

Part IV preface: https://buffaloborgine.tumblr.com/post/656609254197936128/of-zack-fair-genesis-rhapsodos-and-the-strange  ___________________________________ 

Warning: As always, I copy paste this warning over and over just in case you ignore it and keep reading down.  “This series is very controversial, it may not fit with what you know or remember about Crisis Core. So please, read the former parts (I did put the link to Part I in case you are new reader) before putting your foot further down below.” P/s: I welcome all kind of discussion. I love discussion. But this subject is an OBJECTIVE subject, please make sure to keep your bias and prejudice out of discussion. Thank you.  ___________________________________

A 1st class SOLDIER deserted, taking a handful of 2nd and 3rd class SOLDIERs with him, the mass desertion was so devastating that it crippled the SOLDIER department. But… 

A young man strives forwards with all he can, hoping one day he would be recognized as the “Hero” only to realize that… 

An ambiguous email from the leader of the department, talking with encrypted words… 

The “Hero” who has the privilege to veto orders… 

When everything falls apart, just comfortably throws the blame on someone you has prejudices about, no matter if that is right or wrong. 

What you see may just be the tip of the iceberg.  The question is…  Who is the one that should take the blame? 

1. Zack sees life through rose colored glasses 

Zack’s POV in the beginning of the game gives you an important perspective to examine. It’s his naivete.  Shinra is good.  Sephiroth is his hero.  Angeal is his honorable mentor, who can do no wrong.  Genesis is… an asshole deserter who took a bunch of 2nds and 3rds with him, crippling the department, in other word, Genesis is a traitor in Zack’s eyes.  At the start, to Zack, the world is just white and black, the good and the bad. He has no concept of the in between, the grey zone. 

When Zack first started to join SOLDIER, his goal is to become the “Hero” as he was inspired by the heroic figure, Sephiroth. At the end of Crisis Core, before you fought Genesis in Banora Underground, you also realized that Genesis used to be like Zack, inspired by the “heroic Sephiroth”.

Then what about the other SOLDIERs in the department? How many of them are like that? Inspired by this one “heroic” Sephiroth to join in SOLDIER?

Do you start to feel like this is is similar to fishing with a bait? 

And I know you guys reading up to this point may think that “Yeah, we all know Shinra is evil, what’s the problem with them using Sephiroth as a bait to lure in young men to join SOLDIER?”  Well, congratulation, you hit the right spot. That’s exactly what I want to speak about.  Why do you feel comfortable with that information? 

While you think you are not under the effect of Zack’s POV, the sad news is, you are. Because, you didn’t realize that you too, are being comfortable with just knowing about it but doing nothing.  You see Zack at the protagonist of the story, he is on the right side, which in this case, is on Shinra’s side. So then anything that opposes Zack, or opposes Shinra, must be wrong, no?  No matter how you deny it, saying that you know Shinra is evil, when you start playing Crisis Core, you subconsciously adapt to Zack’s POV, thus, you start brushing off minor, complex and ambiguous details that could rival your belief.

This leads to the next problem that we have to discuss. 

2. Unfairness and Inequality in SOLDIER

So according to Genesis’s diary in Crisis Core and Tifa’s memory in Trace of Two Past, we get the information about Sephiroth has been famous as the “Hero” since he was very young. 

We don’t know the exact date in the diary that Genesis wrote that line “the hero Sephiroth” but we know for sure that he and Angeal joined SOLDIER from when they are still in their teenage years, because Crisis Core began in [ μ ] - εγλ 0000, at that point, Genesis, Angeal and Sephiroth are just 20 years old. So they have to be working in SOLDIER for years before that, for Angeal and Genesis to reach 1st class rank. Therefore we can assume that Genesis and Angeal must have joined SOLDIER in their teenage years.  

The Trace of Two Pasts novel gives us the info that when Tifa was 6 or 7 years old, her mother compared Cloud to Sephiroth, saying that Cloud could be even more beautiful than Sephiroth. Tifa is born in  [ μ ] - εγλ 1987 and Sephiroth is born in  [ μ ] - εγλ 1980, according to the FFVII Timeline on the wikia (if you found any source stating differently from this, please let me know), so we can tell that Sephiroth was just 13-14 years old when he was already hailed as the “hero”, for he was well-known amongst people not in Midgar. 

Even if Sephiroth is truly strong that he can solo defeat many Wutai soldiers at once, but since war is never a solo effort, if Sephiroth fought in one battlefield, there has to be other SOLDIER group fighting on different battlefields during Wutai War, right? 

Then, where are they?  You can say that Sephiroth is a “hero” of one battlefield, but you can’t say that he is the “hero” of a whole war. Even in a possibly mythical war like the Trojan war, there can’t just be one hero. 

We know for sure that it’s not “Sephiroth soloing the whole Wutaian army” because in Dirge of Cerberus online section, we know that Shinra has like 13 SOLDIER Units working during the Wutai war, with the exception of 14th SOLDIER Unit, the Lost Force.   So… if Sephiroth can really solo the whole battle out on his own, according to Shinra hailing him as he only “Hero”, then why do Shinra have to enlist more SOLDIER participants, 13 Units is not a small number of people.  And if they all work together in Wutai War, where are they? Why don’t they get recoginition for their work? 

And then we witness ourselves that Zack works on his own, with Angeal’s guidance, to subdue Fort Tamblin, Sephiroth did nothing there. Still, Sephiroth got the glory of winning Fort Tamblin, Zack’s name was never once mentioned. 

And when Zack got frustrated…

… all Kunsel told him is 

The way Kunsel speaks this sentence shows that this situation has been repeated over and over, it has become a normal custom.  The company’s media decide who will be “hero”, that’s just how it is. 

If we can see this with our own eyes, then what else flowing below the surface can’t we see?  If just like we see Zack being lured in joining SOLDIER by the “heroic figure” of Sephiroth and then Zack himself realizing that he would never become the “hero” because the company “chooses” heroes, then, isn’t it the same case for all the other SOLDIERs in the department, those that stayed/accepted (like Angeal) and those that deserted/refused (like Genesis) alike, and the only exception is Sephiroth, because he is the chosen “hero”?

Isn’t “Heroic figure Sephiroth” just a imaginary title crafted by the propaganda of an evil company?  _________________________________ 

That’s the end for part IVa, thanks for coming to my Ted-Talk.  We will continue this problem in the next part. 

Part IVb: 

Of Zack Fair, Genesis Rhapsodos and the strange narrative POV of FFVII-Crisis Core (Part IV preface)

Part I: https://buffaloborgine.tumblr.com/post/650462647672766464/of-zack-fair-genesis-rhapsodos-and-the-strange 

Part IIIb: https://buffaloborgine.tumblr.com/post/655899595763859456/of-zack-fair-genesis-rhapsodos-and-the-strange 

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Warning: Again, I warn you, this series is very controversial, it may not fit with what you know or remember about Crisis Core. So please, read the former parts (I did put the link to Part I in case you are new reader) before putting your foot further down below.  P/S: I welcome all kind of discussion. I love discussion. But this subject is an OBJECTIVE subject, please make sure to keep your bias and prejudice out of discussion. Thank you. 

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The real matter at hand and why you didn’t realize it 

I usually compare the narrative of Crisis Core like a minefield and people just happily hug the mines while they go kaboom with them. 

In Crisis Core, the is a very big elephant in the room but most of the time, people forget that it exists.  So here I will give you some cutscenes and a mail that I will analyze later on the main writing of this part. These things are important but they are very short and people mostly don’t remember them, not not remember them exactly.  Remember to look carefully at each word used in the sentences and the way the scenes are laid out (even the motions of the characters), they may be extremely important. 

Exhibit 1: 

Exhibit 2: 

Exhibit 3: 

Exhibit 4: 

Exhibit 5: 

Like I said, these are very important stuffs, treat them carefully.  I will see you guys again, in the next part.  _____________________________________

Part IVa: 

Of Zack Fair, Genesis Rhapsodos and the strange narrative POV of FFVII-Crisis Core (Part IV conclusion)

Part I: https://buffaloborgine.tumblr.com/post/650462647672766464/of-zack-fair-genesis-rhapsodos-and-the-strange

Part IVb: https://buffaloborgine.tumblr.com/post/657521891798614016/of-zack-fair-genesis-rhapsodos-and-the-strange

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Warning: As always, I copy paste this warning over and over just in case you ignore it and keep reading down.

“This series is very controversial, it may not fit with what you know or remember about Crisis Core. So please, read the former parts (I did put the link to Part I in case you are new reader) before putting your foot further down below.”

Also, as a new issue rising with this part, I emphasize this again READ THE OTHER PARTS. Don’t say I didn’t warn you, I put that phrase like two times in just this warning.

P/s: I welcome all kind of discussion. I love discussion. But this subject is an OBJECTIVE subject, please make sure to keep your bias and prejudice out of discussion, also, I don’t welcome character dissing or using fallacies in arguments, thank you.

_______________________________________

Summary of part IVa and IVb:

- Zack’s POV has a lot of misleading aspect, it makes you deliberately choose to look away from the bigger problem and focus on the smaller but more appealing problem to your eyes.

- Sephiroth, whether he really makes an astounding achievement in the Wutai War or not, is still used as a propaganda by Shinra to lure in new recruits for the war. This process was repeating over and over, and since Shinra treat SOLDIER members with inequality, there is not a single other SOLDIER gets the privilege to be hailed as “Hero” like Sephiroth.

- Genesis, Angeal, Sephiroth, Lazard, and of course the whole SOLDIER department along with President Shinra know about this unfair working ethic circling around. But they developed different reactions towards the situations, resulting in Genesis leading a large group of 2nd and 3rd to go rebelling against Shinra (with the secret help of Lazard) while the others stay loyal to Shinra (like Sephiroth), or eventually coming up to their own demises through paradoxical ideology (like Angeal).

So the final problem of this part is: Why are most of us feeling alright with all of these above?

Please take this into account when you think about this problem: Crisis Core was the last release of the Compilation, I mean, the team released three games (FFVII Original, Before Crisis and Dirge of Cerberus), one movie (Advent Children), two novels (On the Way to a Smile and The Children are Alright) ahead of Crisis Core. Even if you don’t have access to the novels and Before Crisis, you would have at least playing through OG/DoC or watched Advent Children, right? Then the team of writers/directors have established “Shinra is an evil company” in your head. This fact was repeated over and over throughout all the Compilation.

But then…

You came to Crisis Core.

And you became like a new player.

You suddenly, abruptly forgot that “Shinra is an evil company”.

Without you recognizing it, you felt that working for Shinra may be fine…

You have become Zack.

But, halt there for a second. If you have read all through this theory, and I thank you for doing so, you would be having two types of reaction:

- You feel like “Yeah, I did suspect that. I mean, it doesn’t feel right as I played through the game.”

- You feel like “Why didn’t I notice this before?”

And you would be surprised that the more you think you know about FFVII before you reach Crisis Core, you have higher chance to fall to the second option. New players, who only entered the fandom for a short while, or played Crisis Core as their very first game to get on with FFVII will fall for the first option.

This is a result of an effect called as “Dunning-Kruger effect”.

Dunning-Kruger effect is a hypothetical cognitive bias stating that people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability. Notably, the bias results from an internal illusion in people of low ability and from an external misperception in people of high ability; that is, “the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others”.

With players who have had a lot of time with the franchise before Crisis Core, Dunning-Kruger effect happened when they spent time with other parts and thought that they have understood most of what are represented in FFVII, thus, they came to Crisis Core, thinking confidently that “Yeah, I know the basic set up of the story, I know this, I know that, so nothing can really surprised me.” This thinking eventually leading to them not paying enough attention at the details hidden in plain sight, like, yeah, you know Shinra is evil, and Zack was still thinking that working for Shinra is right, and then you think that whoever opposed Zack must be bad, while you didn’t recognize that you are also saying whoever opposing Shinra is bad. Just thinking like the writers/directors dug a very big hole right in front of your eyes with all stuff released before Crisis Core, you saw them doing so, but yet you still step into that hole.

With players who came to Crisis Core after they go through Remake, well, then they literally have very little knowledge about FFVII. They came to Crisis Core to gain more knowledge, but, problem is, they already have the bias from Remake. I mean, who really don’t get any info from the fandom? In example, with that “Sephiroth is just a victim, him burning down Nibelheim is just a tantrum” circling around the fandom, they easily get the prejudice that “Sephiroth was just a victim, he is not guilty of anything”, while in fact, Sephiroth burning down Nibelheim was because he thinks he is the last surviving Cetra, he was superior over humans and the he was destined to ruled over the Planet, and to be fair, you can’t say that “burning the whole town and murdering the people there just because of believing oneself to be superior than the others” is not guilty. The misconception echoing throughout the fandom, or fanon, usually got to the new players faster than the canon itself. Therefore, without a proper checking, these new players suffered the Dunning-Kruger effect, they tend to believe in what they read/hear from other people in the fandom with too much confidence that they don’t even check it for themselves, resulting in the misunderstanding of Crisis Core’s problem.

However, if you are an old fans or a recently new player who just played Remake and came to Crisis Core, and still feel that the narrative here is a bit weird, then congratulation, you have dodged the Dunning-Kruger effect. Yay!

After all, I can’t claim that my writing in this whole theory thing is right. It’s all just my speculation, and I won’t force you to accept my speculation. I wrote this all out is for discussion.

And yet, there are more to discuss about the narrative of Crisis Core, although, if you read up to this point of this theory, you have to admit that the writers/directors of Crisis Core played you like a fiddle. They know how you would look upon the game, and they actually wrote it in a way to fool you.

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Thanks for coming to my Ted-Talk. I will see you next time, with a different problem to discuss.

Part Va: https://buffaloborgine.tumblr.com/post/658885243477032960/of-zack-fair-genesis-rhapsodos-and-the-strange

Look who just moseyed on in…