I would classify the giant destiny monster we beat up as more substantially different than a pre-established character with obvious motivations appearing imo. Alive Zack is comparable.
They're Weapons. Ethereal Kaiju protecting the planet's spacetime are still Weapons.
And yes, Zack is alive. For now.
He's a pretty big supporting character in Zack's story lol.
See that qualifier you used? That's what I'm talking about. That's why he's not one of the key central characters. Yes, he was the antagonist in
Zack's story. Which is over.
So you're saying Zack joining the party has a chance
Eh, temporarily? It's possible. The likelihood is more than zero, yes. I don't think he will, but it's possible he could show up at a certain key moment that would be climactic to the story. But joining the party permanently would be a stretch and completely absurd.
As I said, the thematic purpose would have him be something like a representative of the Planet. You have Sephiroth representing Jenova and himself, Genesis representing the planet, and Cloud and co. representing humanity I guess. Just spit-balling here.
And why would
this be necessary? Why would a stand-in for the Planet even be present when the Weapons already exist for this purpose and
they only served as glorified kaiju enemies who spread chaos and mayhem after Sephiroth cast Meteor, all in a vain attempt to stop him and all threats to the planet?
Because the writers like Crisis Core and they like Genesis? Nojima wrote both games after all. Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus, Before Crisis... it's all FF7 to them, even if fans don't always agree lol. If they want him there he'll be there. He has motivation to be there and about as much handwavy logic for how to get there as Sephiroth does. Again, he'd be a secondary antagonist not a main character. You won't see him at the beach in Costa del Sol or playing at the Gold Saucer lol. He'd serve to showcase how grand the scale of the conflict has become. All big players on the table, and our gang of weirdos in the middle of it all.
Citation needed. Since when do the writers
like Genesis in a unique or memorable fashion?
They like Cloud. They like Zack. They like Sephiroth.
They're featured prominently in numerous works. Where in the world did they say or feature Genesis like them?
Yeah, the writers love the Compilation and their work, but we can look at Nero and Weiss for precedent. Are
they now suddenly the new villains of this story? Were they shoehorned into the plot or did they get carefully crafted within the proper instance of the story where they would best fit according to the overachieving narrative? And then moved on from once their part was played?
And they're just as big, if not bigger than Genesis.