Ari, I'm not going to turn Chaosbringers into a dramafest, but your post was personal too. I defended myself and my point and that's all I have to say about it.
Except for this: Vincent has no romantic feelings for Yuffie and to read into anything in any way that suggests that he does is, at best, wishful thinking.
Lost Episode is no longer playable. I haven't been able to find a script for the longest time since AC.net/DOC.net died, either, but ironically I seem able to access that right now. So
here's the link, and in case that goes poof again, here's the recap:
Vincent travels from Edge to Junon, boards a boat at Junon, and crosses the sea to get to the other continent (to get to Nibelheim during DoC). At some point during this journey, he rescues a civilian lady who reminds him of Lucrecia. He also passes some room where music is playing and has a flashback because it's the same song he and Lucrecia danced to many years ago.
In the flashback, I gather he's in Lucrecia's lab. Doing what, I don't know, because I didn't see it myself. Maybe just chilling out, or maybe Victoria can tell us. Anyhoo, apparently out of the blue and with no music already playing whatsoever, Lucrecia says, "Dance with me, Vincent" and turns on a radio. Vincent freaks out and says, "W-What? No... No, I can't dance." Lucrecia teases him and says, "So you don't like me," but takes his hand and starts dancing with him anyway. Vincent protests, "No, no that's not what I..." So, she reasons, "Then dance with me." Of course, since they're already dancing by now, Lucrecia points out, "See, it isn't that bad, is it?" and Vincent agrees, "Yeah, this isn't...too bad."
Then is the bit about the protomatera that I will adress next.
Incidentally, after that, Lucrecia gets deep out of the blue and says, "Sometimes... I get so involved with my research that I lose myself. Whenever that happens, though...you always come to my rescue... Thank you, Vincent." Vincent, being the nub he is, goes, "What?" and she says, "Nothing... I just wanted to thank you." Not relevent, but cute, and perhaps sheds some light upon why she allowed herself to get close to Vincent in the first place.
Anyhoo, the protomateria. Victoria refers to the part I glossed over in the middle there, when Vincent notices the protomateria sitting on her desk as they dance and asks her about it. She starts to say, "That's your--" but then stops herself and says "nevermind" and leaves it at "it's very important."
I, too, thought when I read the script, "But the protomateria was supposed to materialize out of thin air later when Vincent turns into Chaos! What's it doing there now? And what does she mean 'that's your--' if she doesn't know it's his 'anything' yet?" Apparently whoever wrote a few wikis thought this was how the protomateria came to be as well.
That is not the case. Grimoire discovered the protomateria in the grotto when they discovered the mako fountain there and concluded that it was where Chaos was to be born. He says nothing about this in the Omega reports that he wrote, but Lucrecia mentions it in the last of the series:
Dirge of Cerberus said:
Protomateria
-Protomateria-
I have determined the materia found by Dr. Valentine at the fountain of Chaos to be a type of refined anti-matter formed within the grotto over the past several millennia.
I believe the planet created this instrument out of necessity as a means to control Chaos and prolong its own inevitable fate.
By controlling Chaos, the planet also succeeds in preventing the advent of Omega. If Chaos is allowed to fulfill his destiny of destruction, Omega's awakening cannot be far behind.
That is why I...
source:
http://www.ffwa.org/ff7/script.php?page=13
The materia had simply been hanging around in her posession dormant all that time. She likely held onto it both because it reminded her of Grimoire and because she still believed it to be important, since she still believed in their theories regarding Chaos and Omega. The protomateria did not spring into existance at the moment it flared in Lu's lab. The Planet created it just as it creates all materia, and because of its connection to Chaos, it had a reaction when Chaos got unruly that first time.
This is why, when Lucrecia discovers this connection in Dirge, she says, "This... The materia... I found... We found together." She's likely referring to Grimoire when she says "we," since she and Grimoire found it together. Also, when she starts to say "that's your--" she isn't on the verge of saying "that's your safety override button," she's on the verge of saying "that's your father's somethingorother."
So really, the fact that the protomateria is sitting on her desk in LE is the only sensible continuity it's even given, considering it's supposed to be there the entire time.
As for OTWTAS, the only mention made of Vincent is how unceremoniously he fell out of contact with the rest of them.
On The Way to a Smile said:
The companions that were with Tifa for the whole trial of their journey split up, just as easily as they did when they joined in. Vincent left just like one of the passengers that would sit next to you on a train. Yuffie protested. She asked everyone if they were all right about splitting up, now that they were friends. Barret was the one who told her that they could see each other whenever they wanted if they all lived. Or maybe it was Cid. After promising to reunite one day, Tifa,Cloud and Barret seperated from the others, leaving for Corel Town. It was Barret's hometown. To him, the tragedies that occurred there because of Mako was what started everything for him. Standing silently for a moment, he told the others not to follow him. He too had to go on living, carrying sins.
source:
http://www.ff7citadel.com/compilation/ac_smile.shtml
And since it probably needs to be said, that's not Yuffie protesting Vincent's departure. That's Yuffie protesting the gang splitting up.
;
(Man, I almost lost this whole thing when the post button timed out on me. o_o Thank god it was still there when I hit back, because I spent over an hour writing this and gathering all the information that supports it, which is rather pitiful when you read it and how relatively short it is. Enjoy it, you llamas.)
I couldn't think up a real analogram (what's the word?)...
Even if all we saw was a red blur between Kadaj's gang and the Turks...
I haven't got round to Lost Episode before, so I really had no clue about that. It seems a bit random, though. ...Not wanting to sound like a git or anything, but seriously, some thought the materia just manifested at that moment? Huh.