I think this is what SE was trying to show with Project G and Genesis and Angeal. They were developed before Sephiroth was, but they didn't have whatever it was Shin-Ra thought indicated they were Ancients.
It was more like, they didn't manifest any of the theoretical abilities they expected the Cetra to have, and then on top of that, they suffered cellular degeneration. Those two projects were failures because of those two reasons, and Hojo, in his awesomeness discovered the real secret of Jenova, and did the unorthodox method of just injecting a baby with alien DNA right in the womb and voila! A Sephiroth was born.
They failed basically because they didn't do enough shit, and were weak.
To me, the difference between what Sephiroth does and what Angeal and Genesis do is who they take their anger out on. Sephiroth takes it out on the entire world, while Genesis and Angeal take it out on Shin-Ra.
Yeah, there's that. But also the fact the other two just are "monsters" when compared to Sephiroth.
Mr. Ite said:
And how old is President Shinra? Did he inherit the company?
That is one of the few enduring mysteries of FFVII. We don't know how old President Shinra is, but we do know, that the company is a family dynasty. Always held and controlled by a "Shinra" and then passed along to the next.
They've been around for a long time.
But sixteen years ago, according to Cid, they were just a weapons manufacturer, who built weapons for the war. A war that they themselves were fighting to propogate their global conquest? Or was someone else fighting Wutai, and Shinra just gave weapons and power to siphon power from the government. What government? The world outside of Midgar seems like a primitive mess.
Their days as "Shinra Works", a weapon manufacturing company, were
way before the Wutai War. Almost 50 years in the past. I'm not sure where you get the number 16 from, but Cid does mention that they were a weapons company. The weapons could've just been developed for self defense or whatever use. We don't know, but one thing for sure, is people always have need for weapons.
It wasn't until the discovery of Mako Energy, they shifted focus from weapons development, to energy production and distribution.
FFVII's world pretty much just seems to be a loose collection of city-states scattered across its vast planet.
And why was Wutai fighting, if not to lash out against the Shinra world order that wanted to assimilate their culture? Who was in charge? What was going on? Does Crisis Core even try to address these questions?
...Yes. That's what I said. Wutai was fighting Shinra because Shinra tried to make inroads into their land, drill for Mako energy, and make them another part of their puppet empire, but Wutai believed that Mako was a sacred energy, and not something that should be used or defiled by their corporate greed. They not only denied Shinra's offer of compensation, they told them never to come back or else face the wrath of Leviathan.
Yuffie's father, Godo Kisaragi, was the leader of Wutai who fought long and bitterly against Shinra and SOLDIER. It's why when Wutai suffered it's final defeat, he became so disillusioned and depressed, and Yuffie became fixated on materia and trying to defeat Shinra on her own. And yes, CC does address this. It was Shinra's use of materia, and basically SOLDIER, that turned the tide against Wutai. Wutai became desperate and even tried terroristic insurgency but even failed there too.
Can someone explain this to me without just saying the same thing with synonyms, or quoting where it says this in the text? If Sephiroth fell into the Lifestream, bearing in mind that he is half-Jenova, how would he suddenly have access to all of the ancient knowledge encrypted in the dregs of souls? How is this knowledge preserved in the subterranean primordial soup? Is this an ability Jenova has?
Jenova is a viral monster with the ability to not just replicate indefinitely, but to also absorb and taken in the memories, thoughts, feelings, and mannerisms of those it uses its mimetic ability on. Remember, that's why Jenova was so perfect at killing the Cetra. It would take in the thoughts, feelings, and memories of its victims, feed them back at them, and use that to get close.
Jenova has the ability to somehow consume, and read memories. What is the basis of Spirit Energy in FFVII (and by default FFIX)? Memories and experience.
It's perfectly plausible that Sephiroth, being a higher form of Jenova if you will, developed an even broader form of Jenova's mimetic ability. He's not just able to mimic and absorb the memories of victims, but even absorb the spirit energy around him and take it within himself in order to increase his power.
On a smaller form, that's what happens when someone uses materia and casts magic. The caster briefly utilizes the condensed knowledge within the materia, to channel/manipulate spirit energy from the planet, and cast magic using the energy.
Sephiroth merely cranked it up to 11, and that's why he was able to use the entire Northern Crater's spirit energy to aid in using the Black Materia and cast "Meteor."
I always thought that Jenova was basically a Planet-eating monster that feeds on the souls of the dead. Sounds a lot like "absorbing the lifestream to become a god" to me.
Jenova never wanted to feed on the souls of the dead. All it wanted to do, according to Ifalna, was infect people with a virus, create monsters, and kill everything. There was never any indication that it was out to absorb the lifestream. It merely was a monster of alien origin. "The Thing" as someone so aptly compared it to. It had no real grandiose design or scheme.
