Lights surrounding Midgar

[Vedrick]

In the very intro of FF7, the FMV introduces us to the city of Midgar. The camera gives us a picture of Midgar similar to those distributed during FF7's advertising campaign.

http://infodome.wdfiles.com/local--files/geography-of-combat-dome/midgar_big.gif

Afterall, Midgar has been explained frequently as a "pizza" town; the cheese being the upper plate, the base being the slums, and the crust being the reactors.

The problem is, this doesn't explain the layout entirely. More specifically, when viewing Midgar in game, there are some parts that seem completely ignored.

So if anyone more knowledgeable than I is reading, I have two questions I have been wondering for a while:

1. What is inside the ring ("crust") that surrounds the town? Other than the reactors, are they simply walls to enclose the town, tunnels for the trains to travel, or something else?
2. What are the lights on the outskirts of Midgar? This is the part that confuses me the most... My understanding was that the area around Midgar was barren, undeveloped land. Are these lights merely a fluke?
   
   Here's another example:
   
   
   
   
   
   http://orig13.deviantart.net/0160/f/2007/252/a/b/midgar___wip_update_by_noengaruth.jpg

 

[Octo]

I believe those lights (on the outside of the ring) are part of the plate, not on the ground below. But I have no idea of their purpose or if that part of the plate is occupied or what.

 

[Kionae]

My understanding was that the "pizza" they kept referring to was the Plate (which I supposed would make each sector a slice). The slums aren't really part of Midgar. They're just the remnants of town(s) Midgar was built over top of (kind of like Junon vs lower Junon).

Anyway... like Octo said, those lights around the outer edge beyond the reactors are part of the Plate. The Plate actually extends slightly beyond the reactors. I would guess they're an industrial area that services the reactors themselves, but I don't think I've ever seen a specific breakdown of the various parts of Midgar. All we're really told geography-wise is that Sector 0 is where Shinra HQ is, in the center of the Plate, and Sector 6 is the incomplete section.

 

[Ite]

The motorcycle chase minigame takes you through that wall to the very edge of the plate... and the fight with Rollerball occurs on a stretch of unfinished highway, outside of the inner ring, likely alongside or atop one of those fan-like protrusions.

I think the idea was to create infrastructure that could connect with future neighbouring Midgar-like cities, and Shinra's eventual goal (the Neo-Midgar Plan?) was to build a Coruscant-like upper world, with Junon and Midgar connected by lofty superhighways!

But I'm just conjecturing now.

 

[Kionae]

the Neo-Midgar Plan?

Neo-Midgar was the plan to build a whole new Midgar in the Promised Land, before Shinra found out what the Promised Land really was.

 

[Ite]

*Shinra-style-belly-laugh* You think so small! Why stop at two? Imagine a hundred thousand Midgars!

 

[Vedrick]

Thanks for all the replies!

And yea, the motorcycle game is actually what spurred this question. Once the fight is over, you'll notice the road the party is sitting on. (I can't post pictures yet or I would)


The unfinished road leads directly outside, and the party climbs down (a rope if I remember correctly) to the outside world, which consists of a grassy field. Likewise, the party is located outside a doorway and an energy-wall. It appears the area with the door is completely enclosed.

So I guess my question now is, if the aforementioned lights are part of the extensive road systems used in the motorcycle game (and seen in Advent Children), is the area underneath the roads the slums? Or are the slums exclusively under the plates and the area under the roads are empty?

This probably seems very specific, but I am just curious because of how small the slums feels when compared to how much there apparently is. Even in Crisis Core, the slums always seemed very limited and made the scope of Midgar seem weirdly proportioned.

 

[Octo]

I think (though I can't say for sure) that the road systems must lead all around the plate (as shown in AC and the remake trailer) but for whatever reason (laziness/time constraints) they don't appear on pictures of Midgar from above. I'm assuming that the road that you use to escape Midgar is still under construction and presumably is meant to eventually become some sort of 'off ramp'.

Maybe there are other roads that are already complete elsewhere.

But yeah, in retrospect the Midgar in the OG seems weirdly small/distorted.

 

[Kionae]

This probably seems very specific, but I am just curious because of how small the slums feels when compared to how much there apparently is. Even in Crisis Core, the slums always seemed very limited and made the scope of Midgar seem weirdly proportioned.

My understanding was always that the slums aren't one big unit. They used to be a handful of small individual villages, and Midgar was just sort of plopped on top of them to suck up the mako they were sitting on (which... I guess was cheaper than demolishing them and relocating their populace? Or something?). That's why there are ruined buildings, like Aerith's church, down there.

 

[Wolf_]

i think the 'crust' serves multiple purposes. It's a natural defense against Wutaian attack, links the reactors via a train, wind protection (It is supposedly 50 meters above the ground)

As for the sticky out bits, i always thought that they were in the middle of making another ring of slices to expand the city.

Random unrelated thought: What If The Shinra family knew about Omega all along, and built the city high up so when the time came, they could drop the lot, killing everyone and summoning Omega? kind of ff13 Cocoon style.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Maybe that's why Lucretia's thesis was rejected! To cover up the truth the Shinras already knew! Conspiracy theory ahoy.

 

[Kionae]

Maybe that's why Lucretia's thesis was rejected! To cover up the truth the Shinras already knew! Conspiracy theory ahoy.

AND, why the hell else would there be a catastrophic release system for the sector plates unless you thought you might eventually have a reason to drop the thing on a bunch of people?

 

[Octo]

I always thought that Shinra knew that at some point they'd probably have to deal with some sort of uprising - which isn't surprising given how horrible they are - so Omega or not it was probably useful to have that ability. Put the fear of God into people.

 

[Kionae]

But did anyone actually know about the release mechanism? Tifa et al seemed fairly shocked when Corneo told them what Shinra was up to at the sector seven pillar.

 

[hian]

Strange name for a topic, when the bigger question isn't the lights, but rather the huge plates extending from the outer barrier where light is coming from.

That being said, seems pretty obvious that there are new plates being constructed outside of the original circle barrier, in order to extend the size of the city.
Nothing strange about it - cities expand, and so it's completely reasonable for there to be construction going on reflecting this.

 

[Wolf_]

just thought about the light's some more looking at that picture. There's 3 sets of those huge spot lights spaced evenly around the 'pizza'. It would allow you to see any threats approaching from miles away, even at night. I'm going to assume a spotlight bigger than a factory would be quite blinding, and reading any old books that mention battle techniques (Art of war, Book of 5 rings) they always say attack with the sun behind you. Attacking the city with those big ass lights shining at you i would imagine to be a right pain in the ass. If an army would want to attack, they would want to attack directly between the lights, which Shinra have probably mounted additional defenses. So i think the lights would be used to funnel their enemies into heavily reinforced areas.

Theory 2: Light could be a byproduct of the mako use. The stuff glows anyway, so converting it to energy could enhance the glow, so instead of wasting it, they put it to good use and channel the light throughout the city. Further evidence for this would be the fact that the lights are all placed next to reactors. Even the inner lights are next to the central reactor that the HQ is built on.

Theory 3: Because it looks really cool.