Midgar: A Hypothetical Video Essay Part One (Cultures)

[LicoriceAllsorts]

They might be dumping the sludge, although the smell would rise to the Plate....
The mako fumes themselves are pretty toxic, aren't they?
TBH They're probably shipping the sludge off to some moderately populated region of Wutai.

 

[ChipNoir]

Depends on where. Current depictions of Midgar are bigger than the original, but it's also extremely in consistent since there's things like the key art that imply that ShinRa HQ should be visible practically anywhere in the city, and yet some scenes in the trailers seem to imply that the city blocks are far, far bigger, unless they all somehow manage to be facing away from it.

It could be that it's all dumped on the outskirts instead of directly between the sectors. There seems to be a general implication that slum dwellers like to stay close to the central pillar. It may just be because that also acts as the only access point to the plate, but it also may be that the outer edges are borderline uninhabitable.

Another concept to consider is that in the compilation, not all the plate dwellers are equal. There's references in Denzel's story that some sectors are wealthier than others. So the very worst sectors may have the burden of living above the dump sites.

I do kind of want to push the conversation back to my bigger concern though about how you even build a floating city like Midgar.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I do kind of want to push the conversation back to my bigger concern though about how you even build a floating city like Midgar.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Inspire.

 

[Clement Rage]

Well, there is a giant wasteland all around Midgar, seems like it would be easier just to fence off a section of it. It doesn't need to be a good fence, no one's around except monsters and people Shinra doesn't care about.

RE Floating City, other than nine giant pillars, I dunno. It literally could be magic, given the world they live in.

 

[pxp]

Well, there is a giant wasteland all around Midgar, seems like it would be easier just to fence off a section of it. It doesn't need to be a good fence, no one's around except monsters and people Shinra doesn't care about.

RE Floating City, other than nine giant pillars, I dunno. It literally could be magic, given the world they live in.

Isn’t it a theme of the game that Shinra’s science and technology is placed oppositionally to nature, mysticism and “magic” so to speak, though?

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I don't think Midgar floats at all. The plate sits atop the central pillar and is supported by the eight reactors around the rim, which are structurally enormous. Moreover, there seem to be a lot of smaller pillars - a forest of them, in this ACC screenshot:




From a distance it may give an impression of floating, but in fact it is extremely well butressed. You can see a few of the many smaller support columns in this screenshot from CC

 

[ChipNoir]

I was just using the game's own wording. Yes, we all know it sits on pillars. But there's a bit more to architecture than that. Figuring out exactly how the plate is constructed would be a bit important to my video. How do the building and street not collapse inward and down between the pillars?

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Buttresses? I guess it depends how literally you want to take their visuals. You'd have to do a calculation of the stress being borne by the reactors, the central pillar, and all the smaller pillars, and what percentage of weight/stress is not being transferred to the various supports and thus down to the ground. And if it turns out that the Midgar we see is not feasible according to the physical laws of our universe, then either
- we shouldn't take the visuals literally
- they're using some kind of magic or force that isn't visible (Inspire!)
- the physical laws of their universe are different

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

It's enough for me to accept that the plate is sufficiently supported by the buttresses we can see and probable network of trusses that we can't.

The only serious question I have regarding Midgar's architecture and support framework is to what extent Deepground would affect the calculations involved. We're talking about a city-sized hollow cavity beneath the rock and dirt that supports two additional cities worth of occupancy and infrastructure.

I imagine that Reactor 0 being located where it is and designed as it is (from floor to cieling in the cavity) helps take care of the support needed for the weight of the central pillar and Shin-Ra HQ. It likely also helps take care of some of the weight distributed around the central pillar. From there, it's probably a relatively simple matter of having sufficient support distributed around the slums to keep the individual sections of plate elevated.

 

[Roger]

It's enough for me to accept that the plate is sufficiently supported by the buttresses we can see and probable network of trusses that we can't.

The only serious question I have regarding Midgar's architecture and support framework is to what extent Deepground would affect the calculations involved. We're talking about a city-sized hollow cavity beneath the rock and dirt that supports two additional cities worth of occupancy and infrastructure.

I imagine that Reactor 0 being located where it is and designed as it is (from floor to cieling in the cavity) helps take care of the support needed for the weight of the central pillar and Shin-Ra HQ. It likely also helps take care of some of the weight distributed around the central pillar. From there, it's probably a relatively simple matter of having sufficient support distributed around the slums to keep the individual sections of plate elevated.

Honestly, whoever did all that should probably have Reeve's job as Head of Urban Development.

 

[CrashOuch]

Also I'm pretty sure SE confirmed their world has different laws of physics which is why people in Advent Children can semi fly around or something.

 

[ChipNoir]

*Glances up from a pile of Civil Engineering textbooks*


This project is going to kill me.

 

[Clement Rage]

I don't think this is the kind of thing that can be calculated. Are they using mythril alloy? What are its properties? What weight is Mako? Does it have buoyancy? Has the Lifestream burst out of the ground on the site of Midgar before?, and how has that affected the landscape? Is midgar built on rock? Loam? Sand? A Cetra site with magical engineering (see: City of Ancients, perfectly intact despite its abandonment.) Do they have to account for Lifestreamquakes like Mideel?

I can keep asking these questions, but there's no answers that can be found, because they're not using our rules. If you can answer these questions, great, but I wouldn't frustrate yourself too much on this point.

Isn’t it a theme of the game that Shinra’s science and technology is placed oppositionally to nature, mysticism and “magic” so to speak, though?

Well, they routinely manufacture materia, and have no hesitation in looking for things like the Promised Land and Ultimate Destruction Magic. Hojo is quite capable of being scientific about mystical stuff like Omega.

 

[ChipNoir]

Well I need to at least...Try. God knows Game Theory has managed to make more insane things plausible.

 

[Clement Rage]

It's a very interesting project, certainly, I'm watching with interest for what you produce... but I'd be careful of burning yourself out. If you find yourself not enjoying things anymore, I wouldn't force yourself.

Obviously this is completely your call.

 

[ChipNoir]

I'm going under the assumption that they use traditional building materials, just to make my life easier, and that physics are the same where magical human spirit power isn't directly applied.