Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge's Roles in the Remake Thread

Stiggie

Pro Adventurer
AKA
Stiggie
Yes, I really enjoyed how he started to soften and care about everyone there. It shows that Cloud is not an arsehole, and I quite like that. I think the most interesting thing to think about, is that Cloud arrived at Midgard but was very robot-like, in the way he's like "not interested" and trying to be cool and not caring. But this melts quite quickly, and he starts caring about everybody right away. And this is shown not only through Tifa and Aerith this time around, but also through the trio and Barret. As I see it, the sidequests can look not so interesting, but they force -Cloud- to get interested in what's going on around him, in people who are caring for him, etc. In that way, Remake is really very well-done.

It's like, he's becoming more humane as he deals with humans.
A small difference there is also that while in the OG, Cloud is also clearly seen changing, in the Remake he's shown to actively make an effort to change. We see him reflect on his negative behavior, and try to force himself out of it, it's not just gradual without him noticing, it's the result of him interacting with people, reflecting, and adjusting.

The most obvious examples of this are with the High-five with Aerith, and comforting Tifa. Aerith wants to high-five, he doesn't do it, she's hurt, he looks at his hand, he reflects, and then adjusts, and afterwards he's shown doing it without a struggle.
With Tifa she's in pain, he can't react, he looks at his hands, then adjusts, and forces himself to do the right thing.
Marle Chides him, he listens to Tifa in "alone at last".
He remembers the promise, and actively goes back on his earlier dismissal in order to be better.

But it's also extremely clear with the trio, which I didn't expect. Tifa tells him to play nice, and when going with Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge, when given the option not to hear jessies story, he goes "no, I wanna hear it". That's him actively trying to be better. When he goes from ignoring Wedge to telling him he should be proud, that's not Cloud being different, and acting the way he is now, no, that's still him out of his comfort zone, but actively going out of his way to BE out of his comfort zone.

Remake Cloud isn't being changed by other people, he's changing himself FOR other people. And in that drive, I see "real Cloud" wanting to come out.
 

X-SOLDIER

Harbinger O Great Justice
AKA
X
I think what's super interesting about it is that the interactions and situations is that they show something that we all inherently recognize as being "off" about Cloud. He's not changing who he is, so much as we see little parts of him starting to fight to be someone else.

This is why the little things like with Wedge calling him "bro" being something that he actively stands up against only to experience it even more with Johnny later on. I like Biggs' role in calling out Cloud for being like a kid, because that's what Aerith acts like with all of the other orphans and really why Cloud also being that deep down is what serves as a really effective punch for his to be the first loss that hits Cloud when he's all alone. He's holding back on Jessie being intentionally playful with him, but that's where Aerith starts to peel those cracks away, so that when Cloud sees her again with Tifa, those things manage to hit a bit more deeply – which makes both Tifa's & Aerith's Chapter 14 scene land brilliantly – but same for Barret's on talking about the more minor members of Avalanche.

There are so many really clever foils to show perfect facets of what's going on with Cloud's "self" at this point in the story, even before there's any contextual information to really get a handle on exactly how and why what's happening is happening. They are absolutely perfect in their role as introductory minor characters to the things that the rest of the party goes on to do in the story, and framing that everyone in that world is a human whose life is important.



X:neo:
 

FFShinra

Sharp Shinra Shill
So recently been on a plat run of the Remake, and I just realized something about the avalanche trio that makes me wonder about the world as a whole.

Jessie's cover with her mom is that she works as an actress at the Gold Saucer. Only comes home every blue moon. Yet her mom is always prepared for her to drop on in.

Makes me wonder what the logistics are for Jessie to travel from GS to Midgar. Clearly not easy enough to commute daily or anything, but it doesn't seem to be quite the to do of the player party either (which makes sense as the player is a fugitive in Shinra-controlled territories). But it does make me wonder the actual hows of normal regular travel. Clearly travel between the two continents is not forbidden. We do not see evidence of a Midgar airport in either the OG or the Remake. Does Kalm have a harbor? Does that random sub harbor in the OG near the desert play an actual part in travel in the lore?

Just putting this out there for discussion.

EDIT- Obviously Jessie is not in Gold Saucer of course, but her cover has to have some sort of basis in the reality of the world.
 

Chocobo Eater

Pro Adventurer
Just read through this for the first time over the last day and I think I've found something worse than the LTD wars. Holy shit.

On-topic, I didn't like Jessie. Kinda wish she was more of her reserved nerdy self like in the OG. Wedge on the other hand had me snickering more than a few times.
 

KindOfBlue

Pro Adventurer
AKA
Blue
Yeah, all memes aside, I thought Jessie was okay at best...I was more sad about Tifa crying over Jessie’s death than Jessie’s death itself

Wedge, however, is best boy and deserves 72 cats teehee “pussies” lmao in the afterlife
 

Odysseus

Ninja Potato
AKA
Ody
I'm still not really convinced Wedge even died. You don't cut to black when it's supposed to be permanent. "Show the body" and all that.
 

The Twilight Mexican

Ex-SeeD-ingly good
AKA
TresDias
Odd exception: Rosso -- someone who you would expect would survive an enormous fall.

Maybe it just cut to black because showing his mangled body wasn't anything they wanted to show and nothing we wanted to see.
 

Odysseus

Ninja Potato
AKA
Ody
Dirge was oddly good about not doing any falling deaths like that. Azul also actually died, though to be fair he also had a giant gun crammed through his body.
Maybe it just cut to black because showing his mangled body wasn't anything they wanted to show and nothing we wanted to see.
My honest theory is that they wanted to leave wiggle room incase the characters got popular. That's also why Jessie's glove is there, in case.
 

Eerie

Fire and Blood
Personnally... I felt that hearing his voice in a fade to black was more powerful than the OG version where you do see him fall and where he does say that too.

I also feel that if too many characters revive, it will cheapen Aerith's death - one of the two things that's definitely going to happen. Especially secondary characters like Jessie and Wedge. There's already that thing with Zack and Biggs and while we're not sure about the first (I will say forever that Aerith's face and words tell me that Zack is gone), well the second is... here while he should not, and that's not debatable. If the trio survives, Aerith's death will feel too unjust - why can they survive but she can not?

And just so you know, I agree with you, @Odysseus, they could totally have left things as they were to leave doubts about Jessie and Wedge to be able to bring them back. But I still think that was not the intent, because I don't feel they need more development. Biggs, on the other hand, has been left aside a bit, aside that "he taught those orphans". He's the one who feels incomplete, and with whom Cloud connects the least, out of the trio. So he's the one they can expand on, in one way or another.
 

Makoeyes987

Listen closely, there is meaning in my words.
AKA
Smooth Criminal
Wedge was pushed out of 65+ story window by fate ghosts that were adamant about correcting the mistake of him surviving getting crushed by a giant steel plate.

He died. The game merely censored his death for whatever rating reason. However, you hear him smash through the window and fall. And the Ultimania makes it clear they were "correcting" the course of his survival.
 

Makoeyes987

Listen closely, there is meaning in my words.
AKA
Smooth Criminal
Dirge was oddly good about not doing any falling deaths like that. Azul also actually died, though to be fair he also had a giant gun crammed through his body.

D-Did you forget about Rosso?

She literally died the exact same way! LOL

They censored Shalua's death too.
 

Lestat

He/him
AKA
Ergo, V
The only thing the remake managed to kill off successfully was the excitement I had to play it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ite

Ite

Save your valediction (she/her)
AKA
Ite
But, like, half of the game is main characters randomly falling to fade-outs, without a scratch on them, including twice in the very dungeon where they rescue Wedge from himself falling, after Sector 7 falls on him in a fake-out death sequence. Why would they go through all that trouble just to have him do literally nothing and die in a way less impactful and relevant way? Wedge’s post-pillar arc is baffling enough, but I figure it has to be going somewhere, right? Otherwise, why defang the impact of the Pillar collapse?

Is this what we’re in for with Zack?

The only thing the remake managed to kill off successfully was the excitement I had to play it.

I lol’d
 

Makoeyes987

Listen closely, there is meaning in my words.
AKA
Smooth Criminal
You mean, the one time with Rufus? lol


But, like, half of the game is main characters randomly falling to fade-outs, without a scratch on them, including twice in the very dungeon where they rescue Wedge from himself falling, after Sector 7 falls on him in a fake-out death sequence. Why would they go through all that trouble just to have him do literally nothing and die in a way less impactful and relevant way? Wedge’s post-pillar arc is baffling enough, but I figure it has to be going somewhere, right? Otherwise, why defang the impact of the Pillar collapse?

Is this what we’re in for with Zack?

Because Wedge's death scene is right after the explanation with Aerith and Red XIII of what the Arbiters of Fate really are, and as a demonstration of their dedication to protecting "destiny," they off the dude who seemingly survived against his "fate." That's the point. Fate caught up with him and he is one of the "corrections" (which the Arbiters of Fate even call it in their fight against them) they perform to make Destiny stay in line.

And this is a game that apparently went through great pains to keep its rating low, so. Him dying off screen is not that unusual or unheard of (especially in a FF title), they've done it before.

In the end, Wedge got to do far more than he ever did in the OG which is why I don't see how it's less impactful or relevant. He got to make a difference saving people's lives, helping Barret and the others and just being a more fleshed out character. But he still ends up dying. That's just the reality. And I would assume AU Zack will eventually die (again) given that there's definitely a cost to splitting a reality inadvertently.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom