FF7 Headcanons and Discussion

[jazzflower92]

Maybe they're referred to by their surnames by virtue of being Godo's subordinates.

Headcanon: Every town in the world is mostly self sufficient, because travel is so difficult thanks to monster attacks. People travel in armed convoys unless they're poor mercs like the AVALANCHE crew.

So, it's a 2nd amendment based world.

 

[Ryushikaze]

The Shinra family is from Nibelheim. That's why they have a manor there, why Midgar follows the Norse naming theme, why they built their first reactor there, and why they chose to make it their Area 51. This means there's a not unreasonable possibility that Cloud is related to the Shinras. Maybe that's why Rufus is so freaking hardcore.

Masamune was Godo's weapon. It's so huge because it was forged for his Omni form to use.

My larger franchise headcanon is that every Final Fantasy depicts a slightly different parallel world. Yes, even the prequels and sequels. Hence all the inconsistencies and barely-concealed contempt for the idea of "canon"

Cloud being one of Pres Shinra's bastards has definitely been brought forth before, though I think the current understanding is that Cloud's mom is not originally from Nibelheim but moved there just before Cloud was born.

 

[Rydeen]

He doesn’t have those classic “Shinra eyes” that they decided to go for with all of them, but I can see them maybe being distant cousins. I guess it would have to be more likely through his dad than Claudia. Long ago I used to have the headcanon that Rufus partially grew up in Nibelheim, but the timeline seems to imply that he most likely grew up in Midgar as the Shinra building was being constructed and that the mansion had been abandoned by then.

 

[Fade]

I remember bandying the idea around myself on ACF or GameFAQs upon a time, so it's definitely been around a while. Mind you, everyone on the Planet will end up a bastard of Shinra, at this rate. Dude was prolific enough as it is.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

... I think the current understanding is that Cloud's mom is not originally from Nibelheim but moved there just before Cloud was born.

That definitely isn't canon.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Maybe people have somehow confused Claudia Strife with Annette Townsend?

Less of a headcanon, more of a rant: why are young Elena and her family so often portrayed as being very poor? Her father is an instructor at Shinra's Military Academy. They've got to be middle class, or whatever passes for middle class in Midgar.

 

[Rydeen]

Maybe people have somehow confused Claudia Strife with Annette Townsend?

Less of a headcanon, more of a rant: why are young Elena and her family so often portrayed as being very poor? Her father is an instructor at Shinra's Military Academy. They've got to be middle class, or whatever passes for middle class in Midgar.

Maybe cause she has those underdog vibes. But yeah, I’ve always thought of her being at least middle class.

I’m super disappointed we didn’t get to see Laney tending bar in Midgar.

 

[Makoeyes987]

My head canon is Jenova and the Starscourge are fundamentally the same interstellar species except they took vastly different routes of evolution and subsequently evolved different, adaptive powers.

Jenova maintained sentience as a single adaptive organism while the Starscourge sacrificed it's individuality for infectiousness as a stellar microorganism meant to collectively infect and devour a planet.

But these two calamities from space both share the desire to infect and devour all life on a planet and destroy it from within. They both have the power to absorb and corrupt spirit energy, and mutate life into monsters. They both are nigh biologically immortal and are unable to be resisted by the planet alone. However, Starscourge evolved to be highly mutagenic, highly infectious, and able to envelop an entire planet in total darkness, but at the expense of being extremely weak to sublimation by UV light.

Jenova isn't nearly as infectious, but it's also not weak to light. It also maintains itself as a singular biological entity that can divide itself, even on the cellular level, and allow its parts to function individually.


Finally, both entities found an avatar to carry on their legacy.

Spoiler: Spoilers for FFXV

The Starscourge was bound to Ardyn, who became the Starscourge incarnate. Sephiroth was born from Jenova's own DNA, becoming it's son and the new evolution to inherit its will. They both have similar abilities abd powers. Shapeshifting, illusion, biological immortality, spiritual immortality, control over darkness, control over other entities and those infected with its cells.

The thematic similarities between these two calamities from the skies is pretty interesting. FFVII must have left quite an impression on Tabata, lol

 

[Ryushikaze]

That definitely isn't canon.

Wasn't trying to say it was, more that's an idea I see bandied about a lot with regards to the idea of Cloud as Shinra Bastard.

My head canon is Jenova and the Starscourge are fundamentally the same interstellar species except they took vastly different routes of evolution and subsequently evolved different, adaptive powers.

Jenova maintained sentience as a single adaptive organism while the Starscourge sacrificed it's individuality for infectiousness as a stellar microorganism meant to collectively infect and devour a planet.

But these two calamities from space both share the desire to infect and devour all life on a planet and destroy it from within. They both have the power to absorb and corrupt spirit energy, and mutate life into monsters. They both are nigh biologically immortal and are unable to be resisted by the planet alone. However, Starscourge evolved to be highly mutagenic, highly infectious, and able to envelop an entire planet in total darkness, but at the expense of being extremely weak to sublimation by UV light.

Jenova isn't nearly as infectious, but it's also not weak to light. It also maintains itself as a singular biological entity that can divide itself, even on the cellular level, and allow its parts to function individually.


Finally, both entities found an avatar to carry on their legacy.

Spoiler: Spoilers for FFXV

The Starscourge was bound to Ardyn, who became the Starscourge incarnate. Sephiroth was born from Jenova's own DNA, becoming it's son and the new evolution to inherit its will. They both have similar abilities abd powers. Shapeshifting, illusion, biological immortality, spiritual immortality, control over darkness, control over other entities and those infected with its cells.

The thematic similarities between these two calamities from the skies is pretty interesting. FFVII must have left quite an impression on Tabata, lol

It's not the same series, but I've always looked at Lavos in a similar light as well.

 

[Fade]

Etymological headcanon? Yeah, why not.

So, "Galian" Beast is a bit of a mystery, right? Japanese and English fans alike have noted a potential connection to "Gaul" and largely stopped there. But it recently occurred to me that the extra hop between "Gaul" and "purple fire werewolf who dicks you over against Materia Keeper" might be the Beast of Gévaudan. It's both a Gallian/Gaullian/Gaulish/Gallic beast and a reasonably common touchstone for werewolves in fiction (as the In Fiction section on Wikipedia demonstrates). And that, as they say, is that.

 

[Torrie]

Cosmo Canyon Observatory has just dropped a post about Claudia's house, and now I can't stop thinking about it. It looks as if there's a bit too much bread for one family, which makes me think that Claudia actually might be... a baker?

Spoiler: See for yourself

Also, do you see what I see?

Spoiler: Yes, them

I don't think Nibelheim is suitable for this kind of vegetation, not for bananas anyway, which means fruit must be imported, which means the village is not so secluded as it seems. Do you think it sounds like a solid head canon?

I'm not so sure if bananas are supposed to grow in Costa del Sol or in Gongaga since these two areas are the hottest on Gaia, but something makes me think that "banana" and "Gongaga" are quite similar in terms of word building. As a linguist I even dare claim there might be a certain dialect spoken in that area, with its own vocabulary units and grammar quirks.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Those look a lot like "stock house decoration items" to me. At least at the moment. Almost like someone went "what do we usually see on tables... I know! Bread and fruit and vegetables!" and then went to see if the modeling team had any of those done to plunk into the environment. Because if they had to make new models to show up in one scene, that would set back their dev schedule.

Although by this point... I've kind of given up on the FFVII's world-building team to make any sense on how people live daily life in FFVII. Their recent explanations of things break my suspension of disbelief more than they uphold it.

 

[Torrie]

Those look a lot like "stock house decoration items" to me.

I hate to admit that but you're probably right; after all, players are not supposed to look at the backgrounds so thoroughly.

Although by this point... I've kind of given up on the FFVII's world-building team to make any sense on how people live daily life in FFVII. Their recent explanations of things break my suspension of disbelief more than they uphold it.

Do you mean the translations from the most recent Ultimania? To be honest, I kind of skimmed through them without taking them too seriously. I'm just trying to breathe some kind of life into the things we have as I'm progressing with my own piece of fanfiction, but I'm working so slowly because... life, and some new details keep emerging, so I haven't any slightest idea when it'll be finished.

 

[Fade]

I don't think Nibelheim is suitable for this kind of vegetation, not for bananas anyway, which means fruit must be imported, which means the village is not so secluded as it seems. Do you think it sounds like a solid head canon?

Given the kind of world-building so far, I think it's reasonably safe to say that any given village on the Planet is probably no more secluded than, say, a small European mountain town. All indications seem to point to them having the same kind of globalist economy as a modern capitalist nation, however unlikely that may seem in the scale of what we literally see on screen. At most, they probably just have to buy from an independent store instead of a local supermarket equivalent. FFVII really assumes a world not unlike ours in most respects, despite the absence of proper countries and a suspiciously small overall population.

 

[Gym Leader Devil]

small overall population.

New head cannon for me, said oddly small population is due to falling birth rates which in turn stem from mako extraction.

 

[Torrie]

Is there any popular headcanon about the colour of SOLDIER 2nd class uniform?

I think it's commonly agreed that the colours range from light blue to purple to black, but Zack's 2nd class uniform gravitates towards dark blue. Have the devs ever commented on that choice? What is your own take on this issue?

 

[cold_spirit]

My headcanon is that SOLDIERs get more freedom with their attire as they rise in rank.

3rd Class is always blue.

2nd Class gets to choose between purple, dark blue, or red (the OG color).

1st Class can wear the black uniform or whatever outfit they desire (as is already canon).

 

[Chocobo Eater]

"Japanese" and "English" are both spoken in Midgar, and I guess the rest of the world. Because you see signs and stuff all over Midgar that are in both languages (though I believe some of the kanji isn't actually Japanese, but Chinese). As for which is more common... well, that depends on your game settings.

 

[Rydeen]

"Japanese" and "English" are both spoken in Midgar, and I guess the rest of the world. Because you see signs and stuff all over Midgar that are in both languages (though I believe some of the kanji isn't actually Japanese, but Chinese). As for which is more common... well, that depends on your game settings.

What would be the history behind this bilingual ubiquity? Would "Japanese" be Wutainese? How would it have spread, especially with the lack of Wutainese-blooded people? But perhaps more likely now with the altered outcome of the war and the greater prominence of the Wutai nation. Or maybe it's a different language altogether? Further, why would Shinra put Wutainese characters on their property?

 

[Shademp]

Making stuff up on the spot, I reckon that Wutai's persistence as a nation and as an ultra-unique culture on the world stage is not solely due to Wutai never being properly assimilated by Shinra. People usually blame Shinra's dominance for the lack of any national identities in the rest of the world but I don't feel that is enough.

Perhaps the clue is in how small the planet appears to be. You either have a city-state or you have a nation the size of a continent, with literally almost no room for anything in-between. Any attempt to form a "nation" and a national identity would require you to conquer the entirety of the continent you are on. Maybe the idea of nations barely ever caught on at all, only existing as fleeting concepts as some city-states briefly grouped together to fight other cities.

No coincidence then that Wutai, the most nation-like place of them all, is an entire "continent" in the FF7 world's frame of reference.

 

[kiwi]

Very Cool Topic:

1. Cloud has a middle school education at best.
2. Tifa was healed by a black market doctor in the slums whom she pummeled after he tried to take advantage of her for payment. Her original plan was to go back to Nibelheim, but she doesn't have any money and starts waitressing to make ends meet. She lives meagerly for a year or so before Barret sets up shop in Seventh Heaven. She just happened to walk in on an Avalanche meeting while looking for work.
3. Aeris and all Ancients are descendants of The Spirans from FFX.
4. Had Nibelheim not happened Zack would have eventually helped Cloud reach SOLDIER First Class. Cloud would win over Tifa at first, but she would eventually tire of the Shinra stooge he had become.
5. Sephiroth probably knew Cloud would defeat him in the Northern Crater. The fact that he allows the party to reach him implies that he doesn't care or in fact wants to be defeated so he can enter the lifestream.
6. Aerith would have gotten bored with Cloud quickly if they dated.
7. Most of the party members are alcoholics.

 

[cloudy]

I feel that at some point questions about the size and frequency of places people live, the use of English/Japanese in Midgar, etc become redundant when you think about the practicals of how our world affects how Gaia is portrayed. Of course Midgar is going to have a lot of Japanese in the background while to us they're speaking English, because the game is developed in Japan and the localization teams aren't going to go in and manually alter every asset in the city with text on it. Realistically, Midgar would have a single language and maybe small communities of immigrants who spoke other languages, just like in any other big city. The world map looks off because for the purposes of a video game they aren't going to chart out countries, cities, towns that have nothing to do with the story with no reason to visit. Healin always existed, but wasn't in the original game because it just wasn't relevant until Rufus drew attention to it.

Given the kind of world-building so far, I think it's reasonably safe to say that any given village on the Planet is probably no more secluded than, say, a small European mountain town. All indications seem to point to them having the same kind of globalist economy as a modern capitalist nation, however unlikely that may seem in the scale of what we literally see on screen. At most, they probably just have to buy from an independent store instead of a local supermarket equivalent. FFVII really assumes a world not unlike ours in most respects, despite the absence of proper countries and a suspiciously small overall population.

I agree, other than the last part which again comes back to relevance to the plot. Of course, it's up to how you personally want to engage with FF7 as a story, but just because countries (or towns, people, etc) aren't mentioned doesn't necessarily mean they don't exist. For example, Wutai is clearly meant to be a country if it can sustain a war with a force as powerful as Shinra for a number of years, even though in the game it's only a little bigger than any other point on the map.

 

[Dr Frasier Crane]

Claudia seems like a pretty loving and thoughtful mother, no? May I present the following:

During the Nibelheim flashback, why does Claudia encourage Cloud to date an older woman who can take care of him?
Broke: Claudia knows that her son is going to be an emotionally stunted man-child for a long time and wants his inadequacies to be accommodated for by some poor woman.
Woke: Claudia knows that Cloud is hung-up on Tifa and that this crush will continue to cause him pain for as long as Brian Lockhart continues to hate Cloud. She wants him to move on.
Bespoke: Claudia and Brian have been having a torrid affair since after the death of Mrs Lockhart and she doesn’t want Cloud to get mixed up with the Lockharts as she has.

 

[Shademp]

Bespoke: Claudia and Brian have been having a torrid affair since after the death of Mrs Lockhart and she doesn’t want Cloud to get mixed up with the Lockharts as she has.

I am now in love with this Nibelheim drama

Square, give me the Nibelheim soap opera I now so desire

 

[Dr Frasier Crane]

I am now in love with this Nibelheim drama

Square, give me the Nibelheim soap opera I now so desire

In season 2 of Nibel Peaks, Claudia Strife finds herself torn between the tormented Brian Lockhart who she knows is bad for her, and the sweet but goofy Zangan, who just doesn’t excite her the way Brian does.