characterization change

[wintery_banana]

I hope it's ok to post something like this O_O, I've been searching for a place where you can actually talk about the game for a while and suddenly thought to search again on LJ

Comments

[ardwynna_m]

I think one thing FFVII always did well (or badly, depending on how you prefer your storytelling) was leave us to fill in gaps ourselves. Connecting the dots between one set of behavior and the next has a wealth of fic potential in it. Seph's sudden snap makes sense to me because almost by definition that's how snaps happen. He was more laid back in CC but only in comparison to his OGC self and only with very close company, not laid back in general. He did seem to me like the kind of guy who would keep most things bottled up to the boom point, and betrayal by a formerly trusted comrade could be the catalyst. Since the original game is mostly Cloud's perspective, he never saw the laid back side of Seph so neither did we

[oddacious]

betrayal by a formerly trusted comrade could be the catalyst.

I think it was betrayal by every significant force in his life, if you get right down to it.

[wintery_banana]

Well, a lot of ppl say that about Reno, but though he dropped the plate and all, he did not really seem like an ass later in FFVII and kind of got friendly starting Wutai (?) where they went on a rescueing mission for Elena and Rude talked about his crush on Tifa, also I think they were not trying to fight Cloud and co seriously later in the game when they were trying to get somewhere (ShinRa?), thus bending their orders a bit for ppl they liked, which is what Cissnei and Tseng did in CC. Anyways at the end of FFVII I thought Reno could be a fun guy if not on the wrong side, having no reason to believe that he liked dropping the plate on all the ppl (my resentments against that might have been further softened by various fanfiction...). Turks do ShiRa's dirty work, and they probably know best what it means to go against them

[ardwynna_m]

Reno's a Turk so I have no doubt he's accustomed to dirty work. The plate part doesn't baffle me at all, and he did show a lighter side later on. It's how it went from 'guy who knows how to make the most of his days off' to 'comic relief goofball' that's the untold part. That and the pretty, I'd never considered OGC Reno all that good looking. ;p

[anonymous]

The Compilation(KH games and Dissidia games too) ruined many characters of FFVII, including Sephiroth and Cloud

[wintery_banana]

I really liked the CC Sephiroth, but I have to agree with you - I used to imagine him as relatively antisocial and schizotype/schizoid before the Nibelheim incident and thought that he just found something he might do and kind of liked after he learned about Jenova and himself (destroy the planet, be God, look down on mankind...). I never imagined him as nice and caring and gone mad because of traumatic experiences :S

[oddacious]

It definitely pulls a lot of characters OOC. I think they just went with the fanfic version (close-but-not-quite) for most of the reoccuring characters - even main ones, like Aeris, who is suddenly much more bashful, girly and dependent than we ever saw her. Let's not even touch being afraid of the sky...

[ardwynna_m]

Five years is a long time.

[skibalovesya]

I think the thing about Sephiroth is that he was hit with a massive bout of betrayal at the hands of said friends. There's a fanfic I want to link to, actually, that aside from the pairing I'd take as canon as to how Genesis, Angeal, and Sephiroth actually became friends in the first place

[wintery_banana]

hm i think i get what you are saying, but from what we see in crisis core, genesis seems to have been a difficult person since long before he started to degenerate, and sephiroth knows and has accepted that... i've always imagined the three of them as genesis, jealous of sephiroth and a bit crazy, sephiroth, knowing genesis as he is and secretly (or not so) having fun being a bit wild with him, angeal who does not know whether to be happy or exasperated about the other two

[skibalovesya]

I've theorized that Sephiroth's reaction to Jenova was a combined result of sleep deprivation, desperation, and an instinctive reaction to Reunion. Canon states that Jenova never controlled Sephiroth, but I have no doubt that the resonance of Reunion played at least some part, if a minor one, in the madness. In addition, a major part of his existence-his origins-was coming under fire there, especially considering that it was something Sephiroth hated to consider. Crisis Core attacks the "monster" issue, with repeated insinuations that none of the characters of such origins were at all comfortable with the idea. Adding into that that Sephiroth knew very little of his origins to begin with, being basically handed every piece of information he ever sought-and having it rubbed in his face by Genesis-wasn't exactly good for anyone, let alone someone with admittedly as fragile a psyche as Sephiroth