The sector seven plate was dropped as a desperate act to crush a dissenting voice ShinRa could not control. While it was an act of retribution, it was also an act of censorship and of control by intimidation- it was to serve as a warning so that no one else would attempt the act again.

SOPA and PIPA, the proposed Internet Security acts currently in the US congress, also seek the ability to control the flow of information, to be able to control and censor the information online, and this could be extremely problematic for website reliant on information that originates from other sources, including and especially this one.

Even in the reduced forms, these bills are dangerous and set a terrible precedent as far as free speech rights are concerned.

There is, however, a shiny golden wire of hope. Many sites, including Wikipedia, Google, Boingboing, and countless blogs, are going dark today as a form of protest against these bills, to demonstrate the terrible repercussions the ability to censor the internet would have. Many sites are urging their readers to contact their own congress members and urge them to vote against the bill.

We urge you to do the same. This bill would not just affect this site, it would affect us all, both here in the US and with possible aftereffects abroad as well.

So, The Lifestream stands with the Blackout and Against SOPA and PIPA, for a free and uncensored internet.

We just hope you stand with us all too.

We have experienced some downtime on the forums some time ago, in part due to peaked activity, in part due to shitty vB plugins, in part due to a restrictive webhost that blocks databases at times of peak activity. With that in mind, we decided to go forth and move to a new, better host – again.

This time around, we will be moving from a shared hosting account on Hostgator to a ‘virtual private server’ hosted by Leaseweb. The benefits of the latter are pretty big: A ‘dedicated’ machine, so no database blocks anymore, full control over the system (SSH / commandline control, w00t), and a lot more flexibility in what kind of software we can use.

The plan is:

* Close the forums for new replies at 3 PM my time – that’s 2 PM GMT and about… 9 AM eastern time? Something like that.
* Request a full backup from the host. This may take a few hours, depending on Hostgator support.
* Move the backup to the new server. This’ll take about as long as it takes to transfer a ~5 GB backup file – probably about an hour and a half to two hours, but it depends.
* Unpack and setup the backup. This should only take a few minutes
* Change some settings
* Test stuff
* Switch the domain name over to the new server. I set it so it should only take a few minutes for the DNS change to take effect, but results may vary.
* With luck, the whole move will take about three hours. But that’s with luck, so no guarantees, might take longer.

While we’re moving, feel free to head over to awesome sites like FFOF, SO, or goatse.cx.

Alternatively, join the TLS IRC at irc.ipocalypse.net, channel #tls.

Overall, thanks for bearing with us during the downtime, and we’re working hard to keep things running smoothly for all of our loyal fans.

HypochondriacPiano has put together a fan tribute album, “Final Fantasy VII: Pulse of Life.” This music has been featured on the TheLifestream’s On the Way to a Smile Audiobooks, and if you’ve wanted to get your hands on it, and listen to it on your portable mp3 player of choice, now’s your chance! Click Here to Download the Album in .RAR and here as a .ZIP and be sure to let us know what you think in the comments!

It seems that our domain name expired and was replaced with a generic advertising site for a while today. As it turned out, our domain name had expired, and due to administrative fail we were not notified of our impending doom.

I was able to contact the host and fix things before it became unrecoverable – I believe there’s a grace period after it expires to fix things. Here’s to hoping this doesn’t happen again. We apologise for the inconvenience.

On the upside, this reminded me that we registered the thelifestream.net domain three years ago, September 25th, 2008. We celebrated our three years anniversary with a few hours downtime. Woo!

One of their favorite fansites? D’awwww, tanks Square. :3

Thanks to Arianna for the heads up.

Day 01 – Your favourite FF game!
Day 02 – Your least favourite Final Fantasy game.
Day 03 – Your favourite Final Fantasy theme/song.
Day 04 – Your favourite Final Fantasy party from your favourite game.
Day 05 – Your favourite Final Fantasy City/Town.
Day 06 – Favourite part of your favourite Final Fantasy game.
Day 07 – Least favourite part of your favourite Final Fantasy game.
Day 08 – Favourite Chocobo Version.
Day 09 – Favourite Moogle Version.
Day 10 – Best Final Fantasy scene ever.
Day 11 – Final Fantasy game that disappointed you.
Day 12 – Final Fantasy game you’ve played more than 5 times.
Day 13 – Your favourite version of Cid.
Day 14 – Favourite Final Fantasy male character.
Day 15 – Favourite Final Fantasy female character.
Day 16 – Your favourite Final Fantasy limit break.
Day 17 – Favourite Final Fantasy mini game.
Day 18 – Favourite Final Fantasy opening sequence.
Day 19 – Best Final Fantasy outfit.
Day 20 – Best Final Fantasy hair.
Day 21 – Favourite Final Fantasy pairing/ship.
Day 22 – Favourite Final Fantasy summon.
Day 23 – Least Favourite Final Fantasy mini game.
Day 24 – Best Final Fantasy quote.
Day 25 – Final Fantasy game you plan on playing (old or new).
Day 26 – OMG WTF? Final Fantasy moment.
Day 27 – Best Final Fantasy storyline.
Day 28 – First Final Fantasy game obsession.
Day 29 – Current Final Fantasy game obsession.
Day 30 – Saddest Final Fantasy character death.

I got the idea to post about it from LiveJournal user Xi-Feng, who got the idea from LJ user toffeethesnob, who got the idea from LJ user Korynth, who got the idea from LJ user wheatcakes.

(Sheesh! I hope that’s all the credits where credit is due.)

Anywho, it’s been a lot of fun, and I’m making this frontpage post to invite more of you to get in on it. It’s not too late to take part, as it’s only up to Day 06 on the forum right now (I myself am only up to Day 05, as I started a day later than everybody else).

So, come join us. =) Share your favorites, your least favorites, your disappointments, and the Final Fantasy moments that inspired you, made you cry, or that you’ll never forget for whatever other reasons.

How familiar are you with the Final Fantasy games that came before VII? Howabout the game that is most frequently cited to challenge VII’s dominance over the fandom? Have you played it before at all? If so, how long ago was that? Would you like to give it another run-through? Maybe you love this entry so much you’ll jump at any excuse to play it again – I know that’s how many of us feel about it.

Whether you have played it before or not, join us as we journey together through Final Fantasy VI; experience the game that gives Final Fantasy VII a run for its money and presents us with one of the most memorable villains in all of video gaming!  While we progress through the game, pausing at checkpoints, join us for discussion on what you’ve just seen. How did you react? Did you interpret things differently than others? Of course, you can also seek help from more experienced players in tough battles and special items.

Final Fantasy VI is the journey of a group of people fighting, for various reasons, an oppressive empire. Magic, lost to humankind after a war which nearly destroyed them, has reappeared, and one man has set his sights on its source. Will you help us stop him?

Can you?

We just started today, and the checkpoint is to merely play through the game’s opening moments. See here for more details and discussion!

This is Cookie Monster, overlord of what is deemed Great and Just.  I’ve been telling the site staff to make an announcement about this for months.  And for their reluctance, I’m posting myself.   We have made a twitter account that you all can find and follow right here.  We will be updating it soon.  So, let the tweeting begin, we hope to see you there.

Here at the Lifestream.net, we’re usually looking for new and interesting angles to examine Final Fantasy Seven from, and it is with this in mind we are announcing our new front page feature- essays and articles written and submitted by you- the fans. Towards this end, we are proud to present the first of what hopefully will be many user editorials, an essay by a girl named June- also known as Messenger of the Ancients- reposted in its entirety with her permission. For some context, this essay is in part a response to my and Squall of Seed‘s recent articles, as well as the Love Triangle Debate that has plagued much of Final Fantasy Seven Fandom, so you may wish to familiarize yourself with these before reading. In any case, please, sit back, relax, and enjoy the essay.

Experience

I will first start off by saying that I have not been a fan of Final Fantasy VII as long as many people here.  I only saw it a few years ago when a friend showed it to me in Japan.  When she played the game she played so that Cloud loved Aerith.  Many choices came up to have Cloud love Tifa, but she always was nice to Aerith.  To me this game was showing a man who fell in love with a girl he met, then lost her at the hands of evil.  But he still wished to see her and look for her in the end of the game.  It was very sweet.   I remember my friend telling me that some parts will change if you have Cloud love someone else, like Tifa.

One day I looked up what parts of the game would be changed if Cloud loved Tifa.  I was surprised to find out that not that much changed.  The two important scenes that would change would be the dating scene, and scene with Cloud and Tifa under the Highwind.  This is normally called the Highwind scene. If Cloud loves Tifa, the Highwind scene will have small amount of possible romance in it but it is unclear how the scene end.  The ending to the game is always the same.  Cloud will say that he wants to seek or find Aerith again.  To me this showed that, even if you played the game to make Cloud love Tifa, that would not matter because in the end, the game chose Aerith for you.

When I saw the movie, Advent Children, it made sense that Cloud and Tifa did not seem to have any romance going on.  Cloud seemed to focus on Aerith, even living in the church he met her in.  He wanted to find her, to see her again, and when he did, he was able to fight again.   While I do not think that if Cloud and Tifa were lovers, that Tifa could just make Cloud feel better after his hard life, I did think that Cloud living in the church and wanting to see Aerith just one more time was very extreme for just a friend that he lost.  Zack died too, but Aerith was still the one he was trying to find.  The end of the movie has Cloud smile at Aerith as she smiles back.

It is because of this, I always thought that Aerith was Cloud’s true love and did not see that in Tifa and Cloud.  When I moved to where I am now, I was able to find a copy of Final Fantasy VII for kind of cheap, so I bought it.  I played it like my friend did and was fine with that.  I have never played the game so that Cloud loves Tifa, but I’ve from what I read it does not matter that much.

The second thing I want to start off with is that living in another culture has taught me how important experience is.  Many times, someone’s experience will reflect on what conclusion they come to.  The right conclusion for some, might not be right for others.  What seems clear to some, may not to others.  This does not mean there is not ever a right or wrong, and in many cases there is a right and wrong, but even right and wrong can be up to a person’s experience.

The final thing I will say to start off with is that sometimes stories do not end up how we wanted to.  This does not mean we can not enjoy them, or that they are bad.  It just means things do not always happen how we want them to. Sometimes we lose things, even ideas, but then we have to remember what we do have and enjoy that.

Hate

When I first came to the Northern Crater from a youtube link I found, I did not know that this war had been going on for so long.  There seems to be a lot of hate for both sides.  I don’t think there should be this hate.  My dad likes Cloud and Tifa together, and I like Cloud and Aerith but we don’t hate.  Because of this hate I almost did not want to respond to this, but both sides seem to want the truth, so I will give them what I know.

Conclusions

So, the Clotis want to say they win with this new scan.  I am not sure how one can really win or lose with this, but to make everything easy I will say this to start off .  If this page saying that Cloud and Tifa shared romance under the Highwind is what would make Clotis win, I would have no choice but to say they win.  I did not think Cloud and Tifa were together when I watched the movie, or when I read Case of Lifestream White.  But I did kind of think it was possible after reading some texts in the Reunion Files.  A line in Reunion Files says Tifa is a sweetheart (Japanese word, koibito) to someone.  Now it does not say a name, so you would have to look somewhere else to find the answer.  On this new scan, it says Tifa and Cloud verify feelings, and the feelings would be of romantic love.  It also does not mention a low or high version of the scene Under the highwind, just that they verify feelings.  This would make them sweethearts or koibito to each other.

I have been asked if the feelings match.  I do not disagree with the other translation I have seen, but I do think that in this case 合う is not on its own.  It is part of the verb 確かめ.  In this case 合う means they confirmed what they feel together.  They feel it together and that is what they are confirming.   This is how I read the statement but I would not say it is impossible for me to be wrong.  I have also been asked if these feelings are not romantic.  The page is about romantic love, so yes they are romantic feelings.  There is a box at the bottom that talks about family and brotherly kind of love, and FFVII is not talked about.  So Cloud and Tifa are sharing romantic love for sure.

I have seen relationship charts, but to me they seem to be doubtful.  The one had the phrase “more than friends, less than lovers” with a question mark for Cloud and Tifa.  It also showed Aerith’s picture and had a question mark after her name.  Other charts do not tell us for sure if two people share romance even when it is obvious that they do.   Other charts do not show love at all with any characters.   I have also seen Nomura say that he is not sure if Cloud and Tifa got together after FFVII or not, but many later interviews have more different answers.

My best conclusion on this entire love triangle is that it was meant to be guessed at early on, but they slowly began to give us clues to the answer.  This page is a big clue.  We know Cloud and Tifa share romance for each other, and we can guess that they got together after FFVII.  There is an interview where Nojima states that things did not go well at the start, but this is where Advent Children happens.  Then, Marlene and Denzen might help them work it out.  It is unclear what happens after Advent Children with Cloud and Tifa, so this is when we make our own conclusions from our experience.

Winning and Losing

So, does this mean I lost?  No, it does not mean I lost.  It seems very silly for this to be about winning and losing.  I did not talk to friends about this to win or lose.  I wanted to talk about ideas and theories, so that is what I did.  I do not feel that I lost anything.  I think the real people who lose, are the people who think this is about winning and losing.  I feel more like I won.  I have made new friends, and this event has helped me improve my writing and reading, which is something I needed.   So if you want to say you win because of a scan, go ahead.

What do you win?  Do you get a new car?  Do you have better health?  Do you get a lot of money?  No, you do not get anything.  Don’t be so silly and enjoy what you have instead of trying to win everything.

The End of Cloud and Aerith?

No this is not the end.  Do not even think something like that.  First of all, in the scan, there is also a picture of Cloud and Aerith on a date.  The text below it tells us that one of Cloud’s company will invite him on a date and it could be anyone dependent on Cloud’s behavior.  To me this seems to be almost dismissing the date scene as nothing, but I would not say that they are dismissing Cloud and Aerith or saying they do not matter.  The text at the top of the page talks about the heroes of the game.  Both Aerith and Tifa are heroes in FFVII and even though there text says anyone can come, the picture is of Cloud and Aerith.  If this date scene was not important, it would be be pictured at all.  If Aerith was not important, she would not be there.

The story did not end up how I would have thought or how I wanted.  But people who think that if Cloud and Tifa got together, Cloud did not love Aerith seem to be missing something.  Cloud and Aerith have a special bond.  It was not something anyone else in Avalanche had with her.  There are statements that say that Cloud and Aerith’s bond was different than the one Cloud and Tifa have.  We are always being reminded of this.  Case of Lifestream White is a good example.  Aerith is still willing to call Cloud her sweetheart or koibito, even though it is after FFVII.  The one thing she is worried about is making sure Cloud is safe.  Cloud is similar in that the thing that mattered to him the most was his forgiveness from Aerith.  It was not until he got forgiveness that he was able to fight again.  When asked what was most important to him, Cloud thought of Aerith first.  What Cloud and Aerith have may not be completely based around romance, but it is based around a strong bond and a strong love, that no one else has with her.  He feels this and he knows this and this is why he wishes to see her again at the end of the game.

Am I saying that Aerith is more important to Cloud than Tifa?  Well, this is where we need to find our own conclusions, but I want to say this.  Cloud and Tifa being romantically involved does not make the bond that Cloud and Aerith share any less special.  If Cloud was with one hundred girls it would not make their bond any less special.   Their bond was one of the main ideas of the game, and one of the main ideas of the movie and will continue to be a main ideas.  It is not something that should be ignored or just thrown away.

Will Cloud stay with Tifa?   Again, we need to make our own conclusions, but I want to say it again that whether he does or not, does not make what he shares with Aerith any less special.  Aerith will always be there to watch over Cloud, and to realize that and to understand that really does make me feel like I won.  People who miss this idea or just think Cloud and Aerith have nothing are the ones who really lost.

These are my thoughts and conclusions on this whole love triangle based on what information I know.  Will I change my mind?  It is possible, it has changed once.  I thank you for reading and hope that I helped people who might have been having trouble or were confused.  I am sorry if I made anyone angry or sad, but remember what I said, it is not about winning or losing.  It is about love and a strong bond that two people share.  And that is something I can enjoy and something I think anyone can enjoy.    So have fun with your game and the love the characters have, and remember, it is not about winning or losing.  It’s about the experience you share with each other and the conclusion you come to in the end.  And I wish you all good luck with both and once again, thank you for listening.

So, given how long Voices of the Lifestream has been in existence, we’re not sure how many of you haven’t heard of it before, but since we here at Thelifestream.net are into all things Final Fantasy Seven and want to encourage fan projects of all sorts, we figured we’d tell everyone who wasn’t already aware know about this awesome fan orchestrated remix album to the great songs of Final Fantasy Seven, and let you listen to these awesome arrangements at the same time.

For those of you unfamiliar with OC ReMix, it is a project where numerous fan composers take video game sound tracks and put their own unique spin on the original works, to make a familiar yet unique versions of the songs you all know and love, and their Voices of the Lifestream project is no different. The ninth full album made by OC ReMix, it features forty five arrangements performed by forty two different remixers, and we here at TLS are proud to showcase these songs here on our website.

As for how, that brings us to our new embedded MP3 player. I’m sure you’ve all noticed by now that there is a spiffy new bar at the bottom of your browser window when you view the front page, and that is our new Streampad mp3 player, which you can use to listen to any or all of the album’s songs here on the website, or you can download them all yourself here on The Lifestream or at the the source.

Now, without further ado, get listening!

CD 1- Crisis

1-01 pixietricks, zircon – Deliverance of the Heart (Heart of Anxiety)

1-02 Big Giant Circles – Every Story Begins with a Name (Opening – Bombing Mission)

1-03 sephfire, sgx – No Such Thing As the Promised Land (Mako Reactor)

1-04 LuIzA – Materia Junkie (Under the Rotting Pizza ~ The Oppressed)

1-05 norg, SnappleMan – Full Frontal Assault (Let the Battles Begin!)

1-06 Another Soundscape – Too Much Fighting (Fanfare)

1-07 Daniel Baranowsky – Damn Those Turks! (Turks’ Theme)

1-08 Big Giant Circles, Liontamer, zircon – Adrenalyne Kyck (Hurry!)

1-09 zircon – Nomura Limit (Fight On!)

1-10 Xaleph – Son of Chaos (Shinra Company)

1-11 Sixto Sounds, zircon – Lunatic Moon (Red XIII’s Theme ~ Cosmo Canyon)

1-12 tefnek – motor crazycycle (Crazy Motorcycle)

CD 2- Dirge

2-01 djpretzel, Vigilante – Short Skirts (Tifa’s Theme)

2-02 Jeremy Robson – Valse Aeris (Flowers Blooming in the Church ~ Aerith’s Theme)

2-03 Hemophilliac – Embraced Empathy (Dear to the Heart)

2-04 Mustin – Serenity (Main Theme of FINAL FANTASY VII)

2-05 Dhsu – A Life Without Parole (Desert Wasteland)

2-06 Sixto Sounds, Suzumebachi, zircon – Scenes from a Memory (On That Day, Five Years Ago…)

2-07 Geoffrey Taucer, Tepid – Golden Fields (Farm Boy)

2-08 Trenthian – Crystal Sermon (The Prelude)

2-09 Rellik – Chasing the Storm (In Search of the Man in Black)

2-10 Tweek – Sephiroth’s Wake (Trail of Blood)

2-11 bLiNd – JENOVA Celestial (J-E-N-O-V-A)

2-12 Hy Bound – Mark of the Beatsmith (Mark of a Traitor)

CD 3- Advent

3-01 Red Tailed Fox – Suco de Melancia (Costa del Sol)

3-02 Shnabubula – Stone Eyes (The Great Warrior)

3-03 Pot Hocket – Daydreaming Again (Words Drowned by Fireworks)

3-04 Trenthian – Alien Exploration (Gold Saucer ~ Cid’s Theme)

3-05 Another Soundscape – Golden Feathers (Racing Chocobos – Place Your Bets!)

3-06 Red Tailed Fox, Shnabubula – Midnight at Club Corel (Mining Town)

3-07 FFmusic Dj – Ahead On Our Rave (On Our Way)

3-08 Darangen – Kweh! (Electric de Chocobo)

3-09 Jovette Rivera – The Crossroads (Cid’s Theme)

3-10 bLiNd, Leifo – Fading Entity (Listen to the Cries of the Planet)

3-11 Tweek – Frozen Landscape (Buried in Snow)

CD 4- Order

4-01 Pot Hocket – Sleep, My Sephy (Judgment Day)

4-02 Darangen – Collision (The North Cave)

4-03 Star Salzman – Airships Make Me Happy (The Highwind Takes to the Skies)

4-04 JigginJonT – Hydrophone Breakdown (Secret of the Deep Sea)

4-05 Fishy – Omnislash (Hurry Up!)

4-06 bustatunez, The Orichalcon – Rare Square (Countdown)

4-07 Steffan Andrews – Jenova Returns (J-E-N-O-V-A ~ Jenova Complete)

4-08 bLiNd – Beginning of the End (Birth of a God)

4-09 bLiNd, Fishy, pixietricks, Sixto Sounds, Steffan Andrews, Suzumebachi, tefnek – Black Wing Metamorphosis (One-Winged Angel)

4-10 Bladiator – The Golden Ivories of Gaia (Various Themes)

So the final vote for the most memorable moment of the Compilation of FFVII begins now. Which moment has had the most impact amongst the fans of the Compilation? Well…it’s now a final match between these four events. Below you’ll find the ranking results of the previous vote. Now we’ll see which moment is most memorable of all.

Zack’s Death and Cloud taking the Buster Sword was number 1 again.

Aerith’s death in the Forgotten Capital was number 2 once more.

Zack’s DMW destruction during the final battle against the MPs in Crisis Core made it to 3rd.

Cloud throwing Sephiroth into the Mako pit in Nibelheim was 4th place.

All these moments are truly memorable..but it looks like this is shaping up to be a match up of death between Zack and Aerith. It’s almost something like…a lovers’ quarrel here!

But with the vote only being between 4 moments, it really can’t be decided so easily, can it? Any moment could steal it at this point.

If you want your vote counted, be sure to register at the forums and let your voice be heard!